In message , Tim
Streater writes
In article ,
"Pete Zahut" wrote:

Tim Lamb wrote:
Several times, recently, I have had a telephone caller using poor
English trying to persuade me to go through a 10 minute series of
tests on my home computer.

He purports to represent the Windows maintenance team and have got my
phone number from Microsoft! The lure is that my m/c may have been
infected with something nasty.

I assume this is some sort of phishing scam but am I alone or is this
a common event? Presumably my service provider would be involved if
this m/c had been infected?

Also, his last call has not disconnected or our phone line is
coincidentally out of order!
No, you're very much not alone. We've had six of these calls
recently (we're registered with TPS but it does no good). It is a
scam - from what I've read it seems that if you fall for it, they get
you to accept a download that gives them remote access (bad enough on
its own), they then say that they've cleaned your machine and they
charge your credit card to the tune of abouit 0 I just keep telling them that I don't have a computer but it's not
stopped them yet.

In my case I'd be asking "What is Microsoft, do they make ice-cream?"
and "What is Windows and why would I be wanting to run that on my
Macintosh?".

And more particularly, what is a virus, never heard of that before
either.

Excellent.

Reporting a BT line fault using a mobile is painful. Their automated
system doesn't seem able to read the key tones:-(

regards


--
Tim Lamb