EDITOR – In the past 10 days, I have received about eight calls on my landline, ostensibly from Microsoft, asking to speak to the “owner of the computer”.
If you let the speaker continue, he/she tells you that Microsoft is investigating a problem with Windows and then asks you sit at your computer so that you can answer questions.
If you ask how you can be sure that they are legitimate, they tell you they can quote you your computer licence number (there is no such thing).
The first time I received such a call, I said I first wish to verify the matter and rang off.
I phoned my computer technician who told me it was a scam to obtain information that would enable them to access people’s computers for fraudulent reasons. He says it emanates from India, though the accents sound faintly American.
When I received such a call again, I said I can’t talk now and asked for their number so that I could call back.
They instantly hung up without another word.
On subsequent occasions I have told them I know it’s a scam, and their instantaneous response is to ring off without another word.
This happens almost daily, and I have had two such calls on the same day. The voice always sounds electronically modified, as if coming through a device to disguise it.
If they dial my number so often, many others must be receiving the same calls. And enough people must be falling for the scam for it to be pursued with such regularity.
Have other readers experienced this? Be warned.
Gregor Woods
Cowies Hill
