To you, this might sound like an obvious phishing scam. Turns out the perpetrators are trying to gain access to your computer to remove a virus they claim you have. The fee for this service is a mere $250 (or more, if you go for the upsell) conveniently added to your major credit card.
Listen to the Actual Audio:
Audio PlayerTranscript: [Your computer has been] breached. Please call windows security department as soon as possible on toll free 1-866-833-0231 – otherwise your Microsoft windows services will be stopped and you will not [be] able to use your computer. Please call “urgent” at windows security department on toll free 1-866-833-0231.
Common sense says that Microsoft is NOT going to call and tell you your computer is infected. Never have and never will.
BUT – everybody knows somebody that panics – and becomes victimized by this type of scam. Even worse, once the bad guys have access to your machine, it’s a trivial step for them to compromise your online banking and credit card payment information using a simple key-logger.
In these cases, the only way to restore order to your computer is to re-format the drive and restore from an image backup you previously created. (Dr.Backup offers a weekly full image backup service to our business clients for a nominal fee.)
If you do NOT have an image backup, you will be forced to reinstall the operating system, re-establish all user accounts, reinstall all application software and then recover your data from an online/cloud backup service. (You do back up your data using a reliable online backup service, right?)
Alas, bad things happen to good people … all the time.