Microsoft reveals computer cold call scams still a problem

A survey from Microsoft has revealed the extent of the ongoing problem of computer security cold call scams.

The software giant said out of the 7,000 computer users it had interviewed in the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada, around a quarter had fallen for a scam and on average, eight in 10 of them had lost out financially; by as much as £400.

A worrying development Microsoft has revealed is that some people had reported problems with subsequent instances of identity theft, malicious software being downloaded to their PC's and ongoing computer problems.

Stuart Aston, chief security adviser at Microsoft UK, said: “Security software is constantly being improved and so cybercriminals are resorting to deception tactics to trick people into revealing important details or gaining access to their computers."

"Many scammers even claim to be from legitimate companies or their partners,” he said.

Computeractive has been monitoring this ongoing scam for over 18 months. We filmed the scammers in action as they took control of a PC.

Essentially the scammers ask the victim to turn on their PC where they take them through spurious checks that only shown legitimate files and extensions but most computer users do not realise this.

They will then try to gain remote control of the PC to remove it of the alleged malicious software.

They will then either download legitimate free security software or nothing at all while charging the victim for ‘on-going support’.

However, in none of our investigations did we discover any sign of malicious software being downloaded to a victim’s PC, or hear of other criminal activities such as hijacked bank accounts or incidents of identity theft.

We have reported our findings to the police and told readers who are worried about these calls to log a report with Action Fraud, which is aware of the issue.

But according to emails from readers, this organisation said it would only take a report if a person has lost money, which makes it difficult for the police to gauge how widespread this fraud is.

Nothing much to stop the scam seems to be underway; although last year the Police Central e-Crime Unit did shut down a number of websites connected to some of these fraudsters.

We have asked Microsoft for more details of the reports of identity theft and downloads of malicious software.