To waarn you about this new scam that worried my MIL

[theITgirl]

Just had a call from MIL.
She had a call from a company called Kalsoft (sp), based in Banbury Road Oxford. To say she had been infected by a Trojan virus. They needed to access her computer to clean it for her!!!

I have never heard of this company but the scenario is just screaming scam to me. I believe that once she had allowed access they would have installed some key logging software and grabbed her on-line banking or amazon passwords etc.

They did have her name, address and telephone number. Probably off a mailing list. I told her to let them nowhere near her computer and prescribed a G&T. She feels very shaky about it.

Might be worth a word with the DP's or PIL's. Unless they would call you first for advice, mailing list could be an OAP one or just details off the electoral role.

Cannot find anything on snopes about it - yet.

I tell them that I am an IT specialist. Most then hang up. Some continue to try and hook you in...

I had very long chat with the guy that rang me up and tried this. He said he was from microsoft headquarters. I said oo are you in Dublin and waffled on at him, then I pretended to go through with his instructions and then said, hang on, do I need to turn the computer on for this? Oh such fun. He got very cross with me..

Ooh, just remembered that it was one of these guys I had a row with on the phone! I asked him how he got my number (we're registered with TPS) and he said we'd given our number to the retailer when we bought the computer. Apart from anything else, I knew this to be a lie as we've changed our number since then. He then said "what's the big deal about me having your number anyway?!"
Cue: clam going into meltdown and being rude.

My aged mother nearly fell for it too.

My mum had a similar call recently, she came in with the phone and said there was someone on the line saying there was a problem with her computer (she's only had a laptop for 18 months and although I doubt she'd have fallen for it, I was glad I was there).

I started laughing and said give me the phone. I then verbally tore the caller a new arsehole while my mum's jaw hit the floor.

Such fun. I can't wait for them to ring me one of the days. I'll definitely sound concerned and keep them on the line for as long as possible :)

Though a work colleague's son did fall for this recently and paid them £150 via his credit card to sort out the "virus". Moron.

Had some of these calls recently. All claiming to be separate companies.

One I told them that operating this kind of scam was illegal, they hung up.

Next time I asked them how they knew I had a problem, they said because you are connected to the internet, it is directly telling us that there is a problem. I told them my modem was broken & I hadn't been on the net for a week, they hung up.

I also had someone ring & offer me a really stupidly cheap package on my internet/phone line, he talked me all through everything & quite early on I started to realise that he was a scammer. But I kept him talking, going along with it. Then he asked for the account holders (dh) drivers licence number & Medicare number..I asked him why he needed it & he said for confirmation that he had the right Mr & Mrs Different. I told him that at NO time, had the company he was claiming to be calling from (telephone & internet, remember) taken those details as ID from dh. He had the audacity to tell me that dh must have given it without my knowledge, because after all, husbands didn't have to tell their wives everything. SoI asked to speak to his supervisor to check his company was legitimate & he hung up on me....