Good evening Ladies and Gents, I’m writing this blog today due to the latest influx of customers who have came into my store claiming they got scammed. Here’s how the story goes. Customers often needs to install a printer, so they make there way over to what they think is the website of the vendor, for example HP, Lenovo, Acer, MSI, or any other website, but instead they end up clicking on another website that looks very much the same but spelled slightly different. after a few seconds on that site, a live person is trying to chat with you or asking for your phone number so they can help you out and resolve your issue. Thinking they are on the right website they agree and allow the malicious person across the screen from them to remote in on their computer, this is where it all goes down hill. 5 Minutes into the conversation by the malicious company and having complete control of your computer they pull up a variety of items that look very serious and they proceed to tell you that you have many virus, and different issues wrong with your computer.
If this story sounds all too familiar, the first thing you should do is shut down your computer right away and disconnect your internet. They likely are not after your online banking or credit card information, but rather trying to sell you an antivirus program that they claim will clean the so called viruses on your computer. They will then put you on a list of people that they can target every few months for a quick money grab.
Please be careful on the web and who you let remote in on your computer, If this happens to you please bring it to your local computer shop for a virus removal and if it’s more of a serious situation, a complete re install of the operating system might be warranted.
