Like our household, I would assume that many readers of this newspaper receive occasional telephone solicitations from people who are alleging that they have been monitoring your home computer, and have found a problem (such as a virus) that they wish to repair.
If you consider two very simple realities, it is easy to confirm that these callers are impostors, and are preying on our lack of technical knowledge. These people are simply seeking our credit card details, or any other valuable information that they can extract.
First, the Windows operating system on your computer has only been configured with an owner name, and not a phone number. This owner name can be anything – your first name, a company, or even the name of your dog. So, how could the caller have determined your phone number? The answer of course is that they can’t. They’re just going through a list of phone numbers and calling anybody who answers.
Second, the caller will try to convince you that they are monitoring your computer, and have determined that there is a problem. Please be assured that no such monitoring is occurring. Who is paying that person’s salary? The answer of course is that the only money that they’re making is from any fraudulent activity that they successfully commit. No corporation is paying them to monitor your computer. You are of course paying an internet service provider, but they are similarly not monitoring your computer. They don’t have the staff or the need.
The next time you get a call from someone advising you of a problem with your computer, hang up on them. They mean only to defraud you and will do anything possible to convince you that they mean well (which they don’t). Sadly, sometimes there are still rewards for criminal activity.
Steve Hornett