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SALT LAKE CITY — The old Microsoft scam is making the rounds again, but this time it's in a different form.
In the last scam, Bill Gates supposedly tried to send consumers money. This time, alleged Microsoft Windows support technicians are calling Utahns, saying their computer is infected by a virus but the technician can fix it.
"He made it sound like he was the good guy and that bad people are trying to get into my computer," said Melinda Bryant. "He's there to help me."
The man who claimed he wanted to help Bryant apparently was out to hurt her. He called her out of the blue, saying he was a support tech for Microsoft Windows. He told Bryant her computer was infected with all sorts of nasty viruses and kicking error messages back to Microsoft.
He offered to help. He just needed Bryant to do one thing.
"He did want to have access to the computer so he could go in and save me from this virus that was going to destroy everything," she said.
Bryant tried to shrug him off, but he was persistent.
"He didn't want me to wait until later. He insisted anything can happen," she said.
The caller only raised more red flags when he gave Melinda her own zip code and claimed there were a lot of problems in her area. What would that have to do with a virus? And how did he know it?
"When he gave my zip code, I was wondering where he got my number," she said.
Kathryn Linford is a service manager for IT consulting firm NetWize.
"Sometimes they buy phone lists just like any other telemarketer," she explained.
She said besides buying phone lists and marketing info, sometimes these scammers just make a lucky guess.
"Sometimes they say, ‘You have a computer running Windows 7,' and the person will say, ‘You're right, I do,' " she said.
Once a scammer gets into your computer, they'll have access to everything.
"They can access bank records. They can access passwords. They can access anything on there as far as sensitive information," Linford said.
That's not all they damage they can do.
- Do not purchase any software or services.
- Ask if there is a fee or subscription associated with the "service." If there is, hang up.
- Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer.
- Take the caller's information down.
- Never provide your credit card or financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support.
If you do get scammed:
- Change your computer's password, change the password on your main email account, and change the password for any financial accounts, especially your bank and credit card.
- Alert your bank and credit card companies.
"They end up loading adware, spyware, malware, whatever you can for tracking. They can track what you've done online, and they can open up ports that allow other things to get into your computer," Linford explained.
Had Bryant not refused access to the scammer who called her, he could have held her computer hostage and then asked for a ransom. That happened to a friend of hers.
"They kept insisting, buy this. You have to pay for it. It's $200-something. She just kept saying, ‘Give me back my computer,' and they wouldn't do it," she said.
Bryant also said the scammer that reached her sounded like he was in a call center. Linford said that's because he likely was in a call center -- somewhere overseas.
"International phone calls have become so inexpensive and labor is so inexpensive in different countries. There're actually call centers set up in different countries. This is what they do," she said.
Linford said if anyone - whether it's Microsoft, your Internet service provider or your bank - calls you unexpectedly and says they need to fix your computer through remote access, assume it's a scam. If you're worried that something is legitimately wrong, go to a local computer store and talk it over face-to-face.
