And There’s the Scam!

We had all kinds of issues with Windows 8 on our old computers. But now that we have new laptops all loaded with Windows 10, I’ve already started seeing crazy crap a month into ownership. We’ve been getting these alarms sounding, like “intruder alert” whooping and a huge error message with an 844- number to call to have it fixed by a “Microsoft-certified technician.” I took a screenshot of the error message and the popup that appeared over it, warning me not to hit enter or my whole hard drive would be corrupted by Cydoor Malware.

My son called these clowns last night when their popup came over his laptop and I guess the guy in India fielding the call was late for his coffee break and told him to just turn it off at the on/off switch.

I am a skeptic. I dialed the number just to see what they told my son firsthand.
I called and there was no identifying information. Just the usual chipper female
autobot answering asking me to press 1 for technical assistance and to press 2 to hang up. I pressed 1. A man answered and identified himself only as Technical Assistance. I asked for what company and he said, “We’re certified with Microsoft and with Chrome.” I asked what the name of his company was. He said, quite unprofessionally, “I just told you.” So he went on asking what the error code was and I read it to him from the screen. He didn’t even try to play me with any “please hold while I look that up” or other such nonsense.

“Oh, yes. It seems someone has hacked your firewall with malware. I can fix that for you if you’ll just allow me to remote access your computer…”

“ANNNNNDDDDD there’s the scam! Have a nice fucking day.” I hung up.

People PLEASE. The number one scam right now in America is faking to be a tech company help desk and having you call and allow them access into your computer so that they can steal your identity and bank account information. If your computer DOES have a firewall breach, your error message will not pop up in a new tab on your browser. It’s going to pop up from the bottom right corner with your virus protection software. Not some abstract company in India using a server based out of Romania (Oh, yes. I tracked it) and a fake American English accent. Please be careful and research before you download software and NEVER let someone you do not know and completely trust remote access into your computer.

PSA: ACTUAL Microsoft Support numbers can be found by clicking –>HERE!

For Chrome “fix it” information, you can access their website ——>RIGHT HERE!