On the other end of the phone line, you were greeted with the charming tone of a foreign national who did his best to solve an “electronic problem” on your computer.
In our case, we are almost certain that the “expert” was of stereotypical Asian descent, as you can see for yourself in the clip below.
We received the call through the Viber app, the number is of course foreign, which is the first red flag. There are many such calls, so we usually ignore them. But this time, we were ready to test for ourselves how phone fraud works.
The start is expected. She introduced herself as a representative of the well-known company Microsoft. They notice suspicious activity on our system and warn us that we could be the target of a cyber attack at any time. According to her, the condition is so bad that any operation can lead to infection or attack. So he recorded their system, which appears to contain, at least according to her claims, insights into every Windows on the planet in real time. They have succeeded in a truly amazing technological feat.
The conversation continues in the same direction. Lots of warnings about what could happen if we don’t act. Their ultimate goal was to delete the “infected” files and install their unpatched files, either through remote access or through an infected link. A simple but very effective tactic, especially with individuals who are unaware of electronic traps.
It must be emphasized that the “consultant” was very kind and patient, despite our negativity. After making sure that our computer was turned on, she directed us to an experienced technologist. All this time, we’ve been hearing a lot of noise and background noise, far from what we’d expect from a giant like Microsoft. One would expect at least such a massive operation to use microphones to cancel out ambient noise. If you focus, you may discover other scams going on behind the scenes.
We were slowly losing patience. The specialist on the other end of the line guided us to the Command Prompt application, with which we can begin to solve the problem. You requested a Windows license code to verify the validity of your computer. This is where we ended the call because we simply lost interest and got to the point where the scammer started asking for personal information.
The lesson of the story is that anyone can be the target of telephone or online fraud. Pay attention to the warning signs and don’t fall for these tactics. Under no circumstances do you allow fraudsters to access your computer or personal information. However, the golden rule for these scams is to remember that the tech giants will never contact you about any computer problems.
Something similar happened to Miha Lavtar, director of the online agency Optiweb, who also made fun of her. You can watch the video at the link below.