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The Windows Virus Telephone Scam
Again, this one has been doing the rounds for a while but seems to be popular again. You receive an unexpected telephone call from Microsoft (Yes - Microsoft are really calling you!) and you are advised that they have found a virus on your PC which they will help you remove. There are currently 3 different scenarios to this scam:
1. The caller will ask you to switch on your PC and will direct you to a website which contains a download link and will instruct you to download software to remove the virus. In reality, the software you are downloading actually installs very annoying pop-up ads from the task bar of your system advising that your PC is infected with various viruses - in reality it is the software you have just downloaded that is really the virus! And surprise surprise, the software continually asks for credit card details to buy another security package to remove the virus!
2. Again the caller will redirect you to a certain website page which once opened, will run malicious script on your PC. We've had reports of some systems becoming infected with Botnet software in this scam but we have no concrete proof as they may have been infected prior to the call - when we receive more info on this variant we'll update the page and keep you posted.
3. The third variant in this scam is that the caller will insist you have a virus on your PC and then ask you to visit a webpage that unsurprisingly informs you your PC is contaminated with a virus (which is simply a web page with the message flashing on it). They will then attempt the hard-sell routine to get you to part with your credit card details in order for you to purchase anti-virus software to heal the virus. In this third scenario, there is no virus and no software - it's simply a scam to obtain your credit card details.
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