Identity theft scams in official repair services have always been the order of the day, and we all know how common it is to find yourself a victim of the old trick of the supposed revision of your gas. In recent months this practice has extended into the IT world, with many countries now seeing a wave of fraud in which someone claiming to be tech support from Microsoft calls you on the phone and attempts to wheedle personal information out of you or install malware on your computer.
This practice began to be widespread in the U.S. in 2013, setting off alarm bells in various media outlets and even prompting Microsoft itself to launch a help page on the subject. The scam has now extended into other countries so everyone should be aware.
This scam usually follows the same pattern, with a few variations: The speaker presents himself as an official Microsoft technician or some other flashy, big name: Windows help service, Microsoft tech support, or something along those lines, trying to convince you that they have received a report informing them that your PC is infected with some sort of malware.
From there, the procedures center on attempting to obtain your confidential information, whether by making you send an email with your ID and password for some email account or giving you instructions on how to install a “protective” program, which is in fact nothing more than a keylogger or a malware to remotely control your machine.
If unfortunately you’ve already been a victim of this scam, you’ll need to contact the authorities immediately and change the passwords on all your accounts, having immediately disconnected the affected computer from the Internet. You can also download malware detection programs to try to disinfect your system if you have been talked into installing some sort of software.
