Phone call comes in before I’ve had my coffee. Man with a foreign accent says, “Ma’am, your computer has been attacked. Your operating system will be compromised, okay? You won’t be able to turn your computer on. Are you at your computer now?” Me: “No.” Him: “Go to your computer now and turn it on. Are you the person who uses the computer? Your computer has been corrupted, okay?” Me: “No. I’ve got state-of-the-art (security system).” Him: “(Security system) only protects against viruses. Your operating system has been corrupted and you won’t be able to turn your computer on. Go to your computer now and turn it on.” Me: “Who did you say you’re with?” Him: “This is Michael Jones with Windows. Go turn on your computer. I’ll wait until your computer is fully operational.” I hang up on him, go to the computer, turn it on. My security system tells me it performed a scan an hour ago and the computer is green-light secure across the board. Meanwhile, he calls back three times, getting my answering machine. Him (on the machine): “Ma’am, pick up the phone. Pick up the phone now.” On the fourth call, I pick up. Me: “I think you’re phishing me. Do not call back.” He doesn’t call back. Man! What was that about?
He did get the name of my security system. That’s relatively harmless, isn’t it?
I posted this on my Facebook Profile Page. Within seconds, twenty or so people posted that they’d received similar phone calls, in one case four in a week. It’s a scam. Apparently the caller would have directed me to a website, where my computer would have been sucked of its information and the operating system would indeed have been corrupted, at which point he would have tried to sell me a fix.
One FB friend said he led the guy on. Another had her phone company trace the call. Still more said they’d cussed the guy out before they hung up on him.
So there you have it, my friends. Beware of this latest pathetic attempt to steal your information.
New! Strange Ladies: 7 Stories is on Nook, US Kindle, Canada Kindle, UK Kindle, and Smashwords (all other readers including Kobo, Sony, and Apple). Short fantasy and science fiction by Lisa Mason published in magazines and anthologies worldwide.
From the author of Celestial Girl, The Omnibus Edition (A Lily Modjeska Mystery) on Nook, US Kindle, UK Kindle, and Smashwords, The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series, on Nook, Kindle, Smashwords, and UK Kindle, Summer of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book) on Nook, Kindle, Smashwords, and UK Kindle, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book) on Nook, Kindle, Smashwords, and UK Kindle.
Visit me at Lisa Mason’s Official Website for books, ebooks, stories, and screenplays, forthcoming projects and more, on my Facebook Author Page, on Amazon, on my Facebook Profile Page, on Goodreads, on LinkedIn, on Twitter at @lisaSmason, at Smashwords, and at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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