Scam Alert

by Becky on September 6, 2013

I just got off the phone with an “out of area” call from a company claiming to be with Microsoft Security Center (or some other obviously made-up entity) “alerting” me that my computer has been sending them error messages and that this is an indication that something is seriously wrong with my computer and I will lose all of my data unless I let him walk me through how to fix it.

The website he tried to send me to is ammyy (dot) com, but instead of going there as he told me to, I Googled “ammyy scam” and found that this is a REALLY devious group of people who take advantage of people’s fears of losing all the data on their computer. I told the guy I knew he was a scammer and told him to take me off his calling list. Had I stayed on the line, he would have told me install a program to “clean” my computer that would ACTUALLY have allowed him access to it any time he wanted, for any reason.

I could have had my bank login and password taken over, he could have captured my credit card number the next time I bought something online, etc.

PLEASE be on the lookout for this scam! There is no Dell or Microsoft group that will call you to tell you that your computer has been compromised! Do NOT install something on your computer because some stranger on the phone tells you to!

For more info on this scam, click here.

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