Just thought we would publish a fresh warning to people that the bogus Microsoft cold calls seem to be hitting the Horsham area again.  Within the last few weeks we have seen around 12 people who have been called by some very ‘pushy,’ and at times very aggressive, so called Technicians.  They are now using several company names to try and get access to peoples computers remotely including: Windows Service Centre, O2 Technical Support and of course Microsoft.

As we stated many months ago, no-one is able to tell you what is happening on your computer unless you have first given them permission to put some sort of remote access or monitoring system on your machine.  In the majority of cases this is very unlikely so our advice to you is, if you get a call from one of these fake companies just tell them you don’t own a computer, so they must have the wrong number, and put the phone down on them.

In some of the cases we have witnessed over the last few weeks, people have gone along with their ploy as co-incidentally their PCs / Laptops were running slower than normal or were having internet issues.  Please don’t fall for this as when most of these people have given these fraudsters access to their systems they have either been locked out, a virus has been put on or some of their files have been deleted / hidden.  Once this damage is done, these so-called Tech’s then ask for payment to fix the issues they have caused.  If you were to give them your credit card info they will simply empty your bank account for you and your computer will still be left with the damage they have caused.

One poor customer in Horsham was so convinced by their ploy that he actually called the bank and asked why a transaction had been stopped after one of these companies left his machine unusable for two days until they got payment.  The bank explained to him that they had blocked his card due to suspicious transactions but he argued with them saying the so called Tech had called him a few times asking why the payment had been stopped and that he wanted to pay this man to fix his computer. The bank teller eventually got through to him that he was been scammed and that his card had been used to try to purchase lots of different items, all abroad.

Please tell all of your friends about this scam hitting Horsham again and if you have any concerns about you computer or laptop then please either call us on 0791 3337713 or one of the many other legitimate computer companies in Horsham.