The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received numerous reports of hoax phone calls coming from, would be, well known software companies.

We’ve even received them here at Top Speed Computer Services – “Hello this is Joe from Microsoft calling about your software issue.”  Our receptionist’s reply “Excuse me?  As an IT company we handle all our own software troubleshooting.  Do you have the name of the technician that called you?”  Click…

Signs this call is a fraud – Often the caller will have a heavy accent while using a very common American name – Joe, John, Jane, etc.  As in the call we received, these scammers tell you they are a technician calling from a big name company about your software.  They will claim they can resolve your issue if you provide them access to your computer and a credit card for a “small” fee.

We’re all concerned about problems and vulnerabilities with our software, and he said he was calling from Microsoft, so this must be legitimate, right?

Your best defense is to do exactly what our receptionist did…ask a lot of questions.  What’s the name of your company?  What’s your company’s phone number?  Who contacted you from my company?  How did you become aware of our software issue?  Chances are if it’s a scam they’ll already have hung up on you, but either way if they can’t answer your questions just hang up on them!

Most importantly don’t go to any websites they request you go to and definitely don’t give them your credit card information.  If they’re legitimate they’ll provide you a call back number and you can call them back once you’ve verified this is actual assistance you need.

Scammers are constantly coming up with new ploys, make sure your employees are aware of this one and keep your network and identity protected!