Online PC Care Scam!!

There is a new or not so new scam going around and I have met a few people who have been duped or almost duped by these people. I have heard now that these calls are hitting Canada, The U.S, The United Kingdom, and Australia. On the call display on you phone it comes up unlisted name and number. More people seem to be receiving calls from a company in India pretending to be a computer repair company. They are now using the name Online PC Care (but beware if it is any company name). No legitimate company cold calls you and tries to fix your computer. When you answer the phone there will be about a 3 second delay followed by music for another 3 seconds until the “technician” answers on the other side. They will have your First and Last name. The called is probably done by an auto dialer until a target answers the phone. They will start to tell that your computer is acting slowly, or they will ask if it is. Then they will inquire about your operating system. Do you have Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7? The technician will say that your computer is running slow is because of errors and/or “junk files” that are stored on your computer when browsing the internet. Then they will give you a set of instructions to follow.

Turn on your computer.

1. Hold down the windows key and press 'r'
2. type eventvwr
3. Choose Application in the windows Log

They will ask to take over your computer and do some online scanning. To do this they will ask you to install a software program from their website. This gives them total control of your computer, and access to your files. From here they will get you to fill out a form on the internet at the end will ask for your credit card information. Do NOT give any credit card information. The last person that told me about this was told the charge would be $204 to "fix" their computer.

I would also suggest possibly stalling the agent by suggesting your card is maxed out and you will put money on it so if they can call you back tomorrow you can "continue" with the service. Then call the authorities and tell them what has happened and see if there is any recourse that can be taken. If they have direct access to your computer they would need an open channel, thus also easily accessible IP address to access your computer again. Once the police have an IP address it would direct them to the computer of the assailant. If they are in a different country then the governments will get involved.

After everything is said and done you may want to run good security program, i.e. Norton or Kaspersky, or bring your computer into a trusted service company.