Great News! Previously, I have warned you about these telephone scams about your computer. I finally received a telephone call from one of these computer scammers. Now, I have first-hand experience with one of these lowlife telephone scammers who are trying to gain access to your computer for no good! I can share with you my experience and thus help you from falling for this scam. I live in Pleasant Hill, CA and work in and around Contra Costa County. But, you can live anywhere in the USA and be at risk to receive this (or similar) scam.
My experience started with a phone call to my cell phone from +20 2 2021234 while I was at work. My first thought was, “Who is calling me (925 area code) from Washington, DC?” I knew from experience that area code 202 is the code for our nation’s capital. Once I answered the phone, the caller was definitely not from the USA. Closer examination shows that the “+” sign in the telephone number indicates a call from a foreign country. The +20 indicates the call is coming from Egypt. I guess they must be able to make pretty good money scamming people from overseas! I understand that there are a number of telephone scams coming from “202” area code – which is probably +20 country code, followed by a “2.” Beware if you receive any call for this area code, or any area code that you do not recognize!
The caller, in a heavy accent that definitely hindered our conversation, stated something about how some system (firewall) had detected “errors streaming from my computer.” When I asked him what company he worked for, he said he was a Microsoft Certified Engineer (which does not mean that he works for Microsoft!). At this point, I was now trying to waste his time while trying to extract information from him. I asked him a number of questions. When I asked him if he knew who I was, he stated that his name was Sam. When that question didn’t go anywhere, I asked him what should I do next? He wanted me to turn on my computer. Eventually he would have tried to get me to go to a rouge website and/or download a Trojan horse, or similar malware, that would have rendered my computer useless and steal sensitive information.
It appears that this phone call is a current scam-du-jour that is going around. Beware, there are a number of people getting unsolicited telephone calls and being told that their computer is infected, sending errors, slow, etc. Recognize that the sole purpose for these calls is to do you harm – primarily to try to extract money from you.
For more information, please call us at Cantrell’s Computer Sales & Service at 925-827-1200. Or, please drop by our brick and mortar business which is conveniently located in Pleasant Hill on 1936 Linda Drive. We are located one street off of Contra Costa Blvd. We are conveniently located close to all cities in central Contra Costa County including Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Martinez, Pacheco, Concord, Moraga, and Orinda.
Wade Cantrell – Owner, Cantrell’s Computer Sales & Service
