Convincing Scammers Calling From Fake Phone Numbers

I have been receiving many calls from this number lately. It sometimes shows up as 0441158408095 which is a number that does not exist. it looks like their systems are trying to feign as coming from a local Nottingham telephone number, 0115 840 8095.

The caller says he is from PC Optimisers and that there has been an outbreak of computer viruses in my area and can show me where these exist on my PC. The first time I received this call I followed his instructions to find these so called errors and he took me to a remote part of the internal workings of Windows where a log of all events and errors is kept.

As i am familiar with computers I knew that these errors were completely normal and in no way did they prove the existence of a computer virus. When I informed the caller of this he became very angry and I eventually just hung up.

Since that time, I receive calls regularly from these people and upon each call my reaction is different. The point being that these calls don't particlularly perturb me as I am fully prepared for everything they have to say as I work in the IT industry.

However, it occurred to me that not everyone is as familiar with systems and it would be quite easy to get caught up in this scam. Let me just emphasise that point:

THIS IS A COMPLETE SCAM!

Yes, all they want to do is get software installed on your PC that will allow them access to all your private information and persuade you to part with your hard-earned cash.

If you are worried about computer viruses then I recommend you install something like Microsoft Security Essentials on your PC. It is free and works really well. You could also install something like Malwarebytes Anti-malware which looks out for spyware and adware too.

Most important of all, please do not give in to these scammers and hopefully they will eventually realise that what they are doing is futile and that nobody will fall for their tricks.