'Support onclick'?

There's an article on this oh-so-helpful company in today's Guardian Money section (Capital Letters). Apparently they've been doing Australia with this scam. Guy claims to be from Microsoft and knows you have viruses, then 'cleans' your computer in return for your credit card number. Probably introduces himself as 'Mr Gates'...

macman wrote: »

So, if they did such a good job fixing your PC as per your post of 12/6, why did it need fixing again on 15/6?

Exactly. These scammers and scumbags find this MSE thread just like everyone else here.

The thing is at some stage everyone's PC runs slow and may have a 'virus'. Problem is people should not give out private info and they must be idiots to give anything that can identify them on the Internet (ie their PC's IP address). This is extremely dangerous and may involve you -quite literally- in criminal activities without your knowledge. You may have to explain to the police when they kick your door in why you are so stupid. I know there are a lot of stupid people out there but for the love of god keep your private information private. If you give it out willy-nilly it is no longer private.

If anyone phones you and you can't confirm 100% who they are tell them to f*** off. Even if you can confirm them phone them back on a number you have on printed paperwork only.

Just had the call as well...really took me by suprise...I'm not with talktalk so I don't know how they got my number. They asked for me in person as well, which is odd because most bills etc are in my husbands name. Anyway, I told them I was having no probs but if I was I would ring back and could they give me a number . was given 01274 900834. After checking on internet found out it was a scam.

This doesn't mean they have already accessed my computer does it? The kids happened to be on the internet when they were on the phone. I am a real computer novice so please advise !

just got a phone call from them. they knew my surname and number. but the phone call was odd as i had just gone onto an "gambling introductory offer" website, and began registration i then recieved the call.

i thought it was just an odd coincidence at first, they then had some bad reception indian woman telling me she was from microsoft and my computer was in danger. she asked about my operating system and internet connection, with which i made no answer to. i then requested a number to ring them back on (the same number as many others have already posted) - o and her name was JANE ROBSON, what a british name from an indian sounding woman! i then spoke to somebody else upon calling back, and i requested their comapny name, along with bad reception and their unwillingness to tell me they were slow to respond. so i asked them to spell it out, so on google, typing out "support onclick" and then the autofeed found scam. as soon as i clicked onto this page they hung up.

i am worried that i have a keylogger as they knew what i was typing in. what can i do about this? doing malware and antivirus scans now, and checked add remove programs.

Tallymanjohn wrote:

.... full Kaspersky scan and made sure everything's enabled. Any other suggestions?

You (or your friend) can be running 50 security apps and all the best privacy and security software in the world -but it's too late. Once someone has permission and is in your PC they're essentially not doing anything wrong that most apps will notice (after all the user gave them permission and the PC and its security has no reason to be concerned). I could give you all sorts of nightmare scenarios.

There may be no problem but a full clean install is required if they want worry-free PC use. Anything less and they're being very stupid. Which they have already been of course.