Watch Out For This Phone Scam!

I always hear about phone scams but last night? We actually got one at our house! When the phone rang the caller I.D. said “new not available” which didn’t raise too much concern. My husband, John, answered the phone to a man that said he was from Microsoft.  He said that our computer or account was showing problems and that he could fix it. Well, that’s about as far as he got before I heard my husband say “Hmm, and how do I know your with Microsoft? I don’t know you from Adam! So, what’s my email address?”…Silence on the other end, then he hung up. He tried to call back, but we didn’t answer.

When I got to work this morning, I checked online and yes it’s a BIG scam going on. In fact it’s been going on since 2009. Warnings first when to Great Britain and Australia. Then I saw that last year Microsoft issued a warning to English speaking countries, but it would soon go global.

Here is what the Microsoft website says:

The scam works by criminals posing as computer security engineers and calling people at home to tell them they are at risk of a computer security threat. The scammers tell their victims they are providing free security checks and add authenticity by claiming to represent legitimate companies and using telephone directories to refer to their victims by name.

Once they have tricked their victims into believing they have a problem and that the caller can help, the scammers are believed to run through a range of deception techniques designed to steal money.

Please be careful! People get scammed all the time on these things. Taking advantage of trusting people. This particular scam has cost people on average $875!