PSA- telephone scams

[mom2one]

My mom got a phone call this morning from someone telling her that her firewall on her computer was not working right. My mom is 77 and lives alone, and knows little about computers. He told her to go to the computer and sign in and let him access her computer. She did everything he asked.

Please talk with the elderly in your life about these things. He knew her name, etc and she felt like he was helping her out.

Does anyone know what sort of information can be taken off her computer? What should we be worried about?

[NCGrandma]

A former neighbor had a similar experience. When he called me and I confirmed that it was a scam, he admitted that the caller had 'fixed' the computer for $250, after he had given his credit card number. My neighbor called his cc company immediately. Soon afterwards, I got a similar call -- even though I knew it was a scam and I didn't bite, it was still somewhat unnerving.

[BunnyBee]

Mean people suck. :(

This article may help:
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=18378841

Basically, change all passwords, unplug computer until you can get a real malware scan done, put fraud alerts on your credit...

I hope it's not too big of a nightmare for her (aka you probably).

[curiousgeorge]

We got a call about this two days ago. A guy with an Indian accent called from a number with a 456 area code and the caller ID said international call. We hung up on him.

[connor_mommy]

I've been called several times and each time they addressed me as Mrs. X. I asked who actually place the phone call and he hangs up on me. He also had an Indian accent.

[soon2b4]

I get one of these calls per week. I asked for his boss last time, which threw him for a loop & then he hung up. Seriously thinking about putting the 19 month old on to see what happens...
But, I agree, they suck and I'm tired of them wasting my time.

[queenmama]

This is why I'm glad we don't have a landline. We got calls like this all of the time but we only get hit with them once in a blue moon on our cells.

I feel badly for the elderly people that don't know any better. They do make easy targets, so inform those that you know about this!

Good reminder, OP!

Lara

[o_mom]

I've gotten a few of these. They claim my windows computer is infected and imply they are calling from Microsoft.. as if Microsoft cares about my computer, lol.

Anyway, I just tell them we don't have any Windows computers (even though we do) and that usually ends the call.

ETA: Thank you though for the PSA - I need to let my parents know about this scam!

[jerigirl]

My mom luckily intercepted this call at my grandma's house. I think she might have fallen for it had she answered the phone. Horrible!