How to spot a tech support scam before it costs you

There is a whole industry built on ringing strangers and frightening them about their computers. It is well rehearsed, it is persuasive, and it costs people in Leeds real money every week. The good news: every version of it collapses against one simple rule, which we will get to shortly.

Here is how the scams actually work, from the technician who gets called in to clean up after them.

The phone call from “Microsoft”

It usually starts with a phone call out of the blue. The caller says they are from Microsoft, or BT, or Amazon, or a vague “Windows technical department”. They have detected a problem with your computer: viruses, hackers, your internet about to be cut off.

Stop there, because that first sentence is already the tell. These companies do not monitor your personal computer, and they do not ring individuals about faults. They have no way of knowing your machine has a problem, because they cannot see it. The caller is reading a script to a list of phone numbers, and the “problem” is the same for every person they ring.

The script is built on two levers:

• Fear. Your files, your savings and your privacy are in danger, right now.
• Urgency. It must be fixed immediately, on this call, before it gets worse.

Real problems almost never work like that, and real companies never do. Anyone rushing you towards a keyboard is selling something, and with these calls what they are selling is the next step: the connection.

The remote-access con

Whatever the opening story, the destination is always the same: the caller wants you to let them connect to your machine. They will talk you through installing a remote-access program, the same legitimate kind used for genuine remote support, and once you approve the connection, a stranger is sitting at your computer.

From there, the performance begins:

• Fake evidence. They open technical-looking windows full of routine system messages and present them as proof of infection. Every computer on earth shows these logs; that is the trick.
• Fake fixes. After a dramatic “scan”, they charge a fee to remove problems that were never there. Sometimes they install genuinely nasty software while they are in, so that a future “fault” brings you back to them.
• The bank con. The nastiest version: a staged “refund” they overpay on purpose, then a tearful demand that you send the difference back. If a session ever turns towards your bank, it was never about the computer at all.

The pop-up with the phone number

The same con arrives through the browser too. You are reading something harmless, and suddenly the screen fills with warnings: flashing red, an alarm sound, a robotic voice, a message that your computer is locked and infected. And, always, a phone number to call.

That phone number is the entire scam. No genuine security warning ever shows a phone number. Your real antivirus does not ask you to ring anyone, and neither does Windows. The page is just a web page dressed up as an emergency, and the “helpline” leads straight to the remote-access script above.

These pages often will not close politely, which is deliberate theatre. Close the browser however you have to, restart the machine if needs be, and do not ring the number. If the warnings keep returning without the browser open, that is worth a proper look, because something may genuinely be installed.

The golden rule

Everything above is defeated by one sentence, the same one we tell every customer. Only ever let somebody connect to your machine when you rang them, never when they rang you.

When you make the call, you know who is on the other end, because you chose the number. When they call you, you know nothing except what a stranger has told you, and every claim in this trade is worth exactly what it cost them to say it. This rule is how our own remote sessions work, by the way: you ring us, you approve the one-time connection, you watch everything on your own screen, and you can end the session with a click whenever you choose. A legitimate technician is never offended by caution. Caution is the correct setting.

A few companions to the golden rule:

• Real companies do not cold-call about your computer. Not Microsoft, not your bank, not “Windows”.
• Real warnings do not carry phone numbers. Any alert with a number to ring is a scam page.
• Real technicians agree the price before the work. Anyone discovering expensive new problems mid-session is performing, not diagnosing.
• Nobody legitimate needs your bank login. Not to fix a computer, not to process a refund, not ever.

If one has already got in

No shame in it. These scripts are polished on thousands of people, and being caught by a professional deceiver is not foolishness. Move quickly and in this order:

1. Disconnect the machine from the internet. Turn off the Wi-Fi or pull the cable. That ends their access mid-performance.
2. If money or bank details were involved, ring your bank now, using the number on your card, not any number from the call or the screen.
3. Change your important passwords from a different device. Email first, then banking, then everything else. Do not type new passwords on the touched machine until it has been checked.
4. Have the machine looked at before trusting it again. Scammers sometimes leave remote-access software or worse behind. We can check and clean the machine, tell you honestly what was and was not touched, and secure it against a repeat.
5. Report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s reporting centre for fraud. It feels like shouting into the wind, but the reports genuinely steer where police attention goes.

And if you are ever mid-call, feeling that prickle of doubt with a stranger’s cursor hovering over your screen: hang up. You owe a cold-caller nothing, least of all politeness. Then, if you want a second opinion from someone you rang yourself, that is exactly what we are for. The diagnosis is always free, and we will tell you straight whether anything is actually wrong.