WARNING!

I make no apologies for harping on about this.

A client of mine (we’ll call him Tim) had a nasty experience after Christmas, and a very expensive one to that.

He was browsing the web when a popup appeared from nowhere.

The message said something along the lines of ‘to clean and fix all your problems call XXXX.’

Unfortunately, he did call the number and thirty-six minutes later was charged £432.

Tim called me straight after to confirm his suspicion that he’d been scammed.

As to what these guys did I really don’t know. They left the computer with no antivirus protection and several Windows security updates were not installed.

Tim had clearly been scammed and over four hundred pounds worse off.

So here’s my message to you.

If you get popups on your screen asking you to call such and such a number to fix your PC or Mac problems, ignore it at your peril.

NOTE: I’m not talking about your AntiVirus program flashing up with a warning about an infected file; that’s different. I’m talking about here are popups within your internet browser.

Or if you get any phone calls from someone claiming to be from Microsoft or any other company saying you have infections on your computer and they can take remote access to fix it, just give the phone a good slam down, or in case they call you on the mobile, gently press the red icon to end the call. Please don’t slam it!

There’s simply no need to get in to a conversation with these people; all they’re interested in is your bank account.

Stay safe.