Police issue warning over computer scam

by Lisa Reeves

Saturday 14^th March 2015

Sat 14^th Mar 2015

Police are warning residents after a Wilmslow resident received a cold call this morning informing them that they had a virus on their computer that he needed to fixed.

The caller said he was from a company called "Microtech" and asked the resident to allow them access to their computer remotely. The caller was described as having a foreign accent and quite forceful. He said the cost for fixing the virus would be £250.

Wilmslow Community Sgt Andy Miller said "We have researched this scam and have found the following advice on the Official Microsoft website which suggests that anyone receiving such a cold call should put the phone down immediately and not enter into any conversation with the caller.

"The following has been lifted from the Microsoft website which explains more about the scam."

We have heard from a couple customers recently that have been given a call by someone claiming they are from "Microtech" to report that they were supposedly trying to save the customers' computer from a virus.

They instructed the customers to go into their command prompt and type in "assoc." Fortunately, the clients we have had that told us about this call recognized the call was shady and suspicious and promptly hung up. Neither of the clients we spoke with about this scam had any idea who Microtech was nor how the caller had obtained their information.

Microsoft responded to this threat recently in a blog that can be found here.

The Microtech "you've got a virus" call is a complete scam. Do not believe anything such a caller says, do nothing he tells you to do, and hang up on him immediately. If you were a victim of this scam and let them into your computer, you are at grave risk for what they might have done there (installed spyware? Identity theft? Stolen passwords?).

The Microsoft blog, strongly recommended that anyone who had unwittingly given access to their computers to the caller who claimed they had viruses do the following:

1. Reinstall Windows cleanly

2. Change all your passwords, especially those for financial institutions and online stores.

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Charlie Cook

Saturday 14^th March 2015 at 9:08 pm

I phoned Wilmslow Police about this several months ago, after receiving the call every day for a week. I didn't get past the call desk as they said without a number (the number is withheld) it would be wasting their time.

Dave Cash

Saturday 14^th March 2015 at 11:58 pm

Another reporting route is I.C.O. (collating data on unsolicited calls) or the Police Dept for 'detection of electronic fraud'.

I get called regularly by someone purporting to be from Microsoft.
Just hang up.

Sandra Cox

Sunday 15^th March 2015 at 9:32 am

I tell them that I know it is a scam and they hang up immediately.

Oliver Romain

Sunday 15^th March 2015 at 4:01 pm

The police can trace withheld numbers but are not interested in this type of crime.

Stuart Redgard

Sunday 15^th March 2015 at 5:10 pm

@Oliver, I think the "official" term might be that they use their "discretion" not to investigate this type of "offence" due to a number of reasons. One, "I assume", being a lack of front line resources.

Sonia Mitchell

Wednesday 18^th March 2015 at 8:54 pm

This happened to me TODAY. A man with an Indian accent claiming to be from Talk Talk said they had been monitoring the accounts of their customers and had detected suspicious activity coming from my IP address. He even knew my name. I have since googled this and it seems a common scam, and they often have your account number too, which encourages you to think they are genuine. Rather worrying as to how they get hold of it.

I rang Cheshire Police who suggested I report it to Action Fraud (part of the Metropolitan Police, I think) on 0300-123-2040, which I did.