I’m sure you received a phone call or two over the weekend.
Now imagine if a caller told you…
There’s a fault with the engine of your car, or
There’s a fault with the electrics in your home, or
There’s a fault with your gas hob, and they can come around to fix it for a fee.
In these examples, you’d be right in thinking that the only thing that needs help with is the caller, and you certainly wouldn’t keep them on the line for long!
Official figures released today has shown that over a period of 12 months, an astonishing £21 million has been stolen from people in the UK by fraudsters offering advice with computer issues that don’t exist.
You might think that my examples above are not comparable with a computer, as the latter’s connected to the World Wide Web and anything’s possible in this case. But the point is this – just because your computer’s connected to the internet, doesn’t mean that the outside world can see what’s happening on your machine.
Bear in mind that a computer firm will NEVER call you and report ANY of the following:
1) That you have a virus on your PC or Mac and they can take remote access to fix the problem.
2) There’s something wrong with your internet line and they can install software on your computer to monitor and resolve the matter. The only thing this software will do is steal your personal and financial information.
And even if you know you have an on-going issue that needs looking at with your computer and you happen to get a call claiming one of the above, just slam the phone down.
Please don’t slam the phone down if you get the call on your mobile; just gently press the red button!
