Beware Bogus Call re Security issue on PC

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glynner

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My husband was at home yesterday afternoon and recieved a call on the landline from a person saying he was from Global Security Wicklow and that we had a security problem on our PC that needed sorting. As my husband has not got a clue about computers the person asked him to go online and enter in a web address support.me in the browser. He continued to talk TOH through the process but thankfully TOH could not follow his instructions very well as the caller had a foreign accent. The caller was getting irate and then TOH realised that something was amiss and said he was not continuing. The caller got abusive and hung up. I checked when TOH told me in our history and he was trying to remotely log in to our computer as our IT guys here in work use remote connection to solve our IT problems in my job so i am familuar with this process. This is particulary scary that you can be scammed in your own home. Any advice as to where i should report this.
 
This is quite a standard ploy. My wife received a similar call in the past 12 months. Similar to mail scams, all those in a household should be advised to ignore any calls in respect of security issues on a PC. If the caller claims to be from a network provider then ring them back on the official help line to confirm authenticity.
 
I agree there is no way to block these calls as we were recieving the calls in relation to the abortion referendum and for weeks after receiving simular calls, i contacted Eircom about these and because they are our of their duristriction they cannot block them i was informed.
 
Common sense is the only to prevent these......there is no way a security company in Wicklow could know there is something "wrong" with your PC
 
I had a call from a heavily accented man, an accent I would describe as being from the Indian sub continent, claiming to be from NASA (!)

He wanted to check the security settings on my PC. I asked him immediately if it would cost me money and should I get my credit card for him. He nearly fell off his chair with enthusiasm. Unfortunately we got cut off... :D
 
Yes,unfortunately this has been going the rounds for quite some time. I have read some good suggestions about how to deal with them ;). Bottom line is don't entertain them or any such call out of the blue,puporting to be solving a 'problem' of which you were unaware. Never give details of any description to anyone without being 100% sure that they are genuine. Excellent response Gianni, I would say he thought all his birthdays had come together. Pity he got cut off :D
 
glynner said:
My husband was at home yesterday afternoon and recieved a call on the landline from a person saying he was from Global Security Wicklow and that we had a security problem on our PC that needed sorting. As my husband has not got a clue about computers the person asked him to go online and enter in a web address support.me in the browser. He continued to talk TOH through the process but thankfully TOH could not follow his instructions very well as the caller had a foreign accent. The caller was getting irate and then TOH realised that something was amiss and said he was not continuing. The caller got abusive and hung up. I checked when TOH told me in our history and he was trying to remotely log in to our computer as our IT guys here in work use remote connection to solve our IT problems in my job so i am familuar with this process. This is particulary scary that you can be scammed in your own home. Any advice as to where i should report this.
Click to expand...

This is happening all over Europe right now, some have India accents, some US and some UK. They also appear to be tracking the calls they make, so it is possible there will be a follow up call!

I've only had one call in the last 3 months - we have found that the best tactic is to say something like "Before we begin I must inform you that this call is being monitored for security reasons and anything you say may be used in later criminal proceedings, do you wish to continue?" the line goes dead at that point and you usually won't hear from them again for a few months at least.:D
 
No way, the best thing to do is wind them up and play along like Gianni did!! Lead them on a merry dance :)
 
I just had a call regarding windows 7 problem with my computer &that it was trying to crash my computer, from a person with an Indian accent, I was suspicious & told them to ring me back later. I decided to check askaboutmoney & saw this thread - thanks for the info & if they do ring back I'll try the "this call is being monitored " tack, thanks for the help
 
This was reported in the national media last year. Sounds like they're becoming more active again after going quiet for a while.
 
I tell them we have no computer -the children had become addicted, so we now knit and bake! That stops them for weeks on end....
 
I have had few of these recently, one supposedly from Microsoft and another from Windows, I am surprised that they are still at it over the years I have had a lot.
Go onto YouTub, one IT guy set up a computer for this purpose and went the whole way with them, they convince you to download a programme that can take control of you computer.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjKjyMKj3n4
 
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