Study reveals scale of fake tech support call scams

Have you received a phone call at your home from someone claiming to be working for Microsoft or your ISP? Did they claim that they weren’t selling anything, but instead wanted to help you clean up a malware infection on your PC?

Well, if so, beware.

More and more people are reporting that they have received bogus support calls out of the blue, offering a free security check of their home PC.

The problem is that the free security check often involves the caller asking you to install software on your PC that gives them remote access to your computer – opening the door for malware infection, data loss and fake anti-virus scams.

Listen to this great podcast by Sophos experts Paul Ducklin and Sean Richmond where they discuss the problem, and ways in which you can avoid falling for the scam yourself…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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