Microsoft Ireland warns of scam – 2/02/2011

Following on from my newsletter in Septemb 2010, Microsoft Ireland have released the following alert:

Microsoft Ireland would like to warn you of a scam that is currently active in the Irish marketplace. Irish consumers are receiving telephone calls from persons claiming to be from Microsoft, or working on behalf of Microsoft, to tell them they have a virus on their computer.

Details of the Scam:

Consumers are cold called from someone claiming to be from Microsoft and told there is a problem with their computer and offered help to solve the computer problems.
Once the caller has gained the consumer’s trust, they ask consumers to log onto a website to download a file to help solve the problem.
They then ask for credit card details for a package which will fix the virus. They also potentially attempt to steal from the person by accessing personal information on their computer. In addition to gaining access to your personal details, they can also infect your computer with damaging viruses and spyware.

Microsoft takes the privacy and security of our customers and partners personal information very seriously. We are advising customers to treat all unsolicited phone calls with skepticism and not to provide any personal information to anyone over the phone or online. Anyone who receives an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft should hang up. We can assure you Microsoft does not make these kinds of calls.

We have been working closely with the Irish authorities including An Gardai Siochana, the Data Protection Commissioner, ComReg and the National Consumer Agency to warn the public and investigate the perpetrators.

For more information on this scam and how to protect yourself against this, please click here:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/Msname.aspx

Please feel free to report any of these calls to the National Consumer Agency on 1890 432 432 or get further information on www.nca.ie
Yours sincerely,

Paul Rellis
Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland

 

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