When you were a child, do you remember your parents drumming into your head to never let a stranger into your house or car? Well, the same is true with your computer.
Over the past few weeks I have helped several customers deal with the consequences of letting a stranger remotely log into their computer. This occurred either because they received a phone call from a very nice person claiming to be from Microsoft telling them their computer is full of viruses and about to crash or from a web page they wandered onto while surfing the Internet that said the same thing and offered up a phone number to get help.
In both cases, the person on the other end of the phone talked my customer into letting them remotely connect to their computer. Once this happens, all bets are off. The person remotely logging in can now do anything you can on your computer with the added reality that this person is likely an operating system expert, and as such can steal your information and install any kind of virus they wish without you ever knowing.
My advice to these customers was to immediately disconnect their computer from the Internet, change all their passwords via another computer, and to completely reinstall the operating system, which necessitates reinstalling all their applications, device drivers, and settings, a several hour process at best.
Please, please: do not fall for this scam. Never let anyone you don’t know or trust access your computer.
Over the past few weeks I have helped several customers deal with the consequences of letting a stranger remotely log into their computer. This occurred either because they received a phone call from a very nice person claiming to be from Microsoft telling them their computer is full of viruses and about to crash or from a web page they wandered onto while surfing the Internet that said the same thing and offered up a phone number to get help.
In both cases, the person on the other end of the phone talked my customer into letting them remotely connect to their computer. Once this happens, all bets are off. The person remotely logging in can now do anything you can on your computer with the added reality that this person is likely an operating system expert, and as such can steal your information and install any kind of virus they wish without you ever knowing.
My advice to these customers was to immediately disconnect their computer from the Internet, change all their passwords via another computer, and to completely reinstall the operating system, which necessitates reinstalling all their applications, device drivers, and settings, a several hour process at best.
Please, please: do not fall for this scam. Never let anyone you don’t know or trust access your computer.
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