Does anyone think this is genuine?

julie2710

This may sound like an odd question but I would appreciate an opinion.

I have broadband supplied by BT which is paid for by the company I work for. I was sent a wireless router and they sorted out everything. I use it for both my work laptop and my personal laptop.

I received a phone call tonight from someone who said that they were calling regarding my broadband connection stating that everytime I was logging on it was registering that I had a virus which could possibly crash my hard-drive and that they would talk me through removal of the said virus.

To be honest I am not very technical so was a bit wary of someone talking me through a process on either of my computers which may open up all my personal information to them without my knowing.

When I asked where they were calling from they said "Cardiff"!! When I then asked for the company they said PC Technical Support and that they deal with all broadband connections. They were unable to tell me who my broadband was supplied by or any information other than my name and address which I pointed out could easily be obtained by anyone!

I explained my reservations to them and the guy has given me a phone number and a name. I am obviously going to discuss this with my company's IT department tomorrow but was wondering if anyone thinks this is genuine or is it some sort of a scam?

Thanks:o

bengalknights

Its a scam that been happening to alot of people what they do is try to get remote access to your pc to fill with crap.

paddyrg

Yes, it is a scam. They would walk you through installing something to 'remove' the 'virus', which gives them a backdoor into your computer.

You were absolutely right to not trust them.

Marauder999

Agree with bengalknights a definite scam.

julie2710

Thank you all for your responses. He did give me a name and phone number for if I was going to call him back after speaking to my company but I was very dubious of the whole thing!

He also complimented me on being intelligent when I explained why I wouldn't be going through anything with him!:rotfl:

googler

Give his name and number to whomever handles IT security at your company.

James123_2

Yes, SCAM. This has been highlighted recently. Good job you didn't take this one further.

alexmole

you could have tech guys registered with the broadband, but it has avoid written all over it!

julie2710

alexmole wrote: »

you could have tech guys registered with the broadband, but it has avoid written all over it!

I'm guessing if that was the case he would have known who my broadband supplier was?

I'll let my IT Department have his phone number and details in the morning!

prowla

I've had the call several times; when they said my computer was infected, I asked them which one and generally had a bit of a play with them.
There have been a number of threads relating to this scam.
If you remember the story of the Trojan Horse, then that will pretty much explain what's going on.

spud17

Mate just phoned very worried about his PC, *Eric* from Mumbai, has got him to go into Event Viewer, where he's seen some red crosses and panicked.

Eric then started talking about installing Teamviewer.

Luckily PC (fairly) illiterate mate then had alarm bells ringing, I'd mentioned and called me on his mobile.

He's now going to have a crack at winding him up, after all he's been snowed in for 3 days, and not seen a soul.