Last week I had a call from what sounded like BT technical support. Because I have a BT account, I thought I listen to the support agent - But soon I realized they are not BT and it immediately sounded like a clever scam. I listened some more to learn and see if I can warn others against this new scam. My further research shows that this new scam takes only couple hours to setup and the trouble is it is impossible to shut down because the perpetrators are not in Europe or North America.

The con is both extraordinarily clever and ridiculously simple. The fraudster cold-calls the customer and tells them that Microsoft or in my case BT has detected a virus on My PC, I realized that this is a scam immediately as I have over 5 servers on this line and no personal pcs. He then invited me to download a piece of remote-assistance software. No doubt reassured by the lines of indecipherable code flitting across their screen, the caller assured me that they can make the virus vanish – but first, of course, he want payment. £185 which sounded extortionate when I can buy Norton from local PC world for £30.

I got so annoyed with this scammer that I eventually put the phone down - he would not say who he was really working for. But it looks that The “company” behind the scam is called The Nerd Support – although there are others perpetrating similar swindles. The Nerd Support points its victims towards a legitimate looking website, which carries official-looking logos that reassure visitors that it’s a “Microsoft Registered Partner” and is even verified by McAfee Site Advisor as a site that’s passed its “intensive daily security scan” that tests for “dangerous sites, phishing, and other online dangers”. To add to its legitimacy, the site bears a working London 0203 telephone number.

These sites are normally blocked or prosecution can follow if they are in Europe or North America, but sadly if the owner is living somewhere in the third world, it gets very difficult to prosecute, but most of these guys run from Skype, and now that Microsoft owns Skype and Skype numbers, it will be good if Microsoft gets to work and stops these callers quicker.

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About General Topics Long Blog by Salar Golestanian

These are various short and long News Articles and Blogs by Salar Golestanian the founder of SalarO.com about the latest topics that interest me. The subject matter are mixed topics from Web Trends, Technology, Software, Science or Current Afair, or whatever that can affect Internet Technology in any shape or form. I have been told that the best place for these would have been for me to place them on a page at SalarO.com, However, some of these Blogs have less of a commercial or corporate genra, so they are placed here in this personal site. These Blogs help me explain a little more than normally is allowed in the 140 character real-estate of a typical Twitter post. They may also link you to the actual news or site that can expands further on my comments.

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