Published on:
25
November 2011
Warnings of a scam involving bogus telephone callers who ring to say they have detected a fault or virus on personal computers have been issued to residents and businesses by Stirling and Clackmannanshire Council Trading Standards.
The warnings follow a number of complaints made to the Trading Standards Consumer Advice Team about the scam, which is believed to originate from call centres in India.
"It is always very concerning to hear about these types of scams. The victims are very often elderly or vulnerable people in our communities who may not be as confident or familiar with IT, computer programmes and email." said Councillor Eddie Carrick, holder of the Sustainability portfolio.
The scam starts with a call from someone who says they are from Microsoft and that they have detected a serious fault or computer virus which, if not fixed could cause the owner's computer to completely crash. The owner is then asked to open various programmes on their computer that appear to show critical errors.
The caller advises that the only way to fix the problem is to download a special programme from a website, at a cost of approximately £130. If the owner complies, not only will they have been scammed for this bogus 'fix' but the programme they have downloaded will enable all personal and financial data stored on their computer to be accessed by complete strangers.
Microsoft have made it clear that they do not make unsolicited phone calls to help fix or repair personal computers.
Councillor Carrick continued; "The advice offered by Trading Standards is that if anyone receives an unsolicited telephone call that purports to be from Microsoft, or any other company, that they are not sure about, then under no circumstances should personal information be given out. The best thing to do is simply hang up the phone."
Anyone who has received such unsolicited telephone calls and wishes to talk to a member of the Trading Standards Team, should phone 0845 277 7000.