Scammers, I think

AndyPix

Charlton_King wrote: »

strange, rather unpleasant stuff scrolling on the screen completely unbidden.
.

You have malware


Run this : https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/


and then this : https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/


Both free


As for your call from Microsoft ...


1. They did not nor will ever call you.
2. This is an age old scam and I'll wager everything I own that this guy had an Indian accent
3. Spoofing a phone number is trivial
4. How have you survived this long without your bank account being emptied

Geodark

Had "Microsoft" call me a few months ago, early one Saturday morning - and when I called him a scammer he started swearing at me, asking my education level etc - you would think Microsoft customer support would have had better manners

Its like when you get the "I hear you have been in an accident" calls - for some reason they always seem to drop the call when I ask "Ok then, whats my name?"

Tyler_Durden_UK

Frankly I'm quite surprised at the amount of flak targeted at the OP.
Not everyone is as tech / scam savvy as you or I.

grumpycrab

WaywardDriver wrote: »

Had similar but claiming to be BT which is my ISP. Hung up and rang BT who confirmed scam and said we'll never ring you about a problem,

They're not wrong there.

ChuckMountain

To be fair some of the scams are become more and more sophisticated, although some remain fairly straight forward.

It's easy for the techies to see past the smokescreen however they can genuinely frighten some people. It's a bit like cold calling, you are not expecting everybody to bite but if you get a handful of hits per day they make some serious money.

I have seen ones pretending to be all the major ISPs and OS providers ....

If you want to hear recorded ones that have a look on Youtube as they go along with them and lead them up the garden path or just see what they do as a wind up.

There was one were the guy admitted that he was snagging 6 people a day at £400 a time ....

datostar

Scammer : - "Please click on 'My Computer".
Victim :- " Where is your computer?"
Repeat 3 or 4 times. Scammer gets irritated and rings off.

forgotmyname

datostar wrote: »

Scammer : - "Please click on 'My Computer".
Victim :- " Where is your computer?"
Repeat 3 or 4 times. Scammer gets irritated and rings off.

I did this when my FIL had a call. He doesn't even have a computer.

I said hang on just going to turn it on, it may take a while its running really badly and very slow.
I popped the phone down on the sofa and many minutes later he is still on the line.. I said i cannot find the computer. He asked if it was a laptop. I said no its a desktop a massive beige box.. he hung up..

PhylPho

Rather more troubling -- I would've thought -- is this from the OP: "Now this is weird because we have had problems - there have been short interruptions to the broadband connection and strange, rather unpleasant stuff scrolling on the screen completely unbidden."

Even a single incident of "strange rather unpleasant stuff" scrolling unbidden on any computer screen is one incident too many. A procession of such incidents is downright terrifying.

As AndyPix so rightly said at post #12, the PC in question here is infected with malware.

No computer should ever be left un-scanned after an event of this kind. Even if one cannot afford the recurring cost of Malwarebytes Premium with its real-time protection, there's no reason not to have Malwarebytes Free installed. Sadly, it will protect only after the fact, but that's better than no diagnosis / quarantining / removal at all.

Scumbags ringing up (mainly from India) pretending to be this, that or t'other are likely always going to be around. They cannot be quarantined or removed. Malware, however, can and should be.

The OP really should act on AndyPix's advice immediately and certainly not let his post be lost amongst all the others which are, in fact, addressing an issue of lesser subtlety and lesser malevolence.