Life Behind A Lens

This is a heads up for everyone who uses a PC that’s connected to the internet (e.g. all of us).. I believe it’s prevalent in the UK and Australia, but I doubt it’s lmited to these countries.

I have just received a call from a gentleman with an Indian accent, claiming to be from a company called “Support-on-Click”. He explained to me that there has been a spate of computers becoming infected in my locale that have resulted in them crashing and that they would like for me to check my computer. With their guidance, of course.

Immediately, alarm bells started ringing but I went along with it for a while, just ensuring that I didn’t change anything in my computers settings. While I’m doing that and giving the guy the runaround, I’ve got onto the internet and done a quick search for the ‘company’ (Thank the lord I can multitask!!). All of the hits I received on Google were forum posts and blogs stating that these telephone calls are a scam.

Essentially, after running you in circles for a while, they attempt to gain a remote connection to your PC, via the internet, and then install a piece of software on it that does God knows what (it probably develops a problem for you, so that you need their services). They also try to get you to subscribe to one of their services which cost anywhere from $99 to $400.

Once I had confirmed my early suspicions, I asked the gentleman in question what his company was going to get out of helping me. To quote:

‘You’re company is offering to sort my computer out for free, over the phone, and I can hear in the background that you have a very busy call centre there. This means you’re doing the same for a lot of people and that just isn’t good business, unless there’s something in it for you.’

At this point, the gentleman hung up.. Personally, I don’t consider this to be good business either. :))

So, heads up to all of you. If you receive a telephone call from someone claiming to work for Support-on-Click, SystemRecure or Logmein123.com claiming anything like the above, it’s a load of horse manure and your best bet is to simply hang up.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, CHANGE ANYTHING THAT THEY TELL YOU TO!