Phone Scams!

First things first... I LOVE my IKEA cabinets.  I've spent a lot of time rearranging my craft room and I'm liking it much better.  Maybe I'll post some pictures of it in a couple of weeks when I have some time to take them. 

Today, while sitting here working on some projects I hope to be able to show soon, the phone rang.  I didn't recognize the town and I don't usually answer calls that I don't recognize the name/number but I picked up the phone, said hello, and even more unusual, waited for someone to respond.  I knew from the get-go, it was a scam but feeling a bit impish I decided to see if it would be a hang-up or they would click in to talk. I could hear the click when the auto dialer switched to a human.

It was a  man with a very heavy accent saying his name was Kane Williams, from a company name he told me so fast I didn't get it down, and he began telling me that my Windows based computer had alerted them there was an internet virus not detectable by my antivirus software, on my computer.  I listened to what he had to say and answered a couple of yes/no questions, pretty sure this was a scam I had heard something about at some point in time, but pretending to be going along with what he was saying 

At the beginning of the call, he gave me his phone number as 1-866-539-8674 and his Employee ID as 6019.  I actually dialed the number on my cell phone while we were talking and someone did answer with the name of the "company" I think he had said and I hung up. The answerer also had a heavy accent. Within a minute of my placing that call, he told if I wanted to verify who he was to call the number he gave me (probably because he knew I had already done that).

The caller makes it sound so very urgent that you may want to comply with what he is telling you. I'm sure many folks have been a victim of this scam because of their lack of knowledge of computers and the urgent sound of the caller.

He told me to close all my internet windows back to the desktop, and he would show me exactly where the hackers had entered my computer. He said to press Ctrl-R and type in eventvwr. As he tells you what to do, he ask what do you see on your screen, etc. I actually didn't close any of the windows I had open and did  not type in what he told me and at that point told him I thought it was a scam.  After he unsuccessfully tried to convince me it wasn't a scam and I refused to do as he said, he told me that me and my computer could go to hell then he still tried to talk me into the scam. Ultimately, he hung up on me. 

Be wary, folks.. Scammers are a sleazy bunch.  Can you imagine what they could do if they put all that effort into something good. 

Be blessed and thanks for stopping by..

'til next time {hugs}

Lynda