from geeksupportlive, a very nice man called to tell me that he was calling from geeksupportlive and that they are getting reports from my computer that I have a lot of viruses.  That due to the agreement that they have with Microsoft, they are contacting people who have infected machines and offering to scan them for free…..

Luckily there were a few things going for me:

1 – My Mac was definitely not reporting back to their servers that my windows was infected

2 – the words computer virus and infection do not scare me

3 – ooops their call was answered by someone who probably knows more about the computers than they do in their sweatshop call center in India

How did I get so lucky to get this call the day after I started this blog?  After putting the gentleman on hold while I went to my computer and started it up (amazing how the computer can report viruses to their server when it is not on) and then a few more minutes while I “took another call from my son” I then was directed to go to a site to download a remote management tool.

Kudos to the website administrators of ammyy.com – a free remote administration tool for putting a warning up on their website that reads:  

http://www.ammyy.com/en/admin_mu.html

Remote management tools are very powerful tools, and in the hands of the wrong person, can do a great deal of damage to your computer and your privacy.

NEVER give access to someone that you don’t know..

But wait, I don’t know you

well if you call me then you are the one who initiated the contact, if I ask you to load a remote administration tool it is because you have asked me for help.  Beware the unsolicited caller bearing gifts…..they might just be a big wooden horse.

Well after I read them that disclaimer, Tyson told me that I was seeing that because my computer was clearly infected because his screen was not showing that link.  He transferred me to his Senior Support Technician who assured me that I had one of the worst cases of infection that he had encountered, and that I needed to do something IMMEDIATELY!  He then directed me to showmypc – another remote admin tool – this time without the warnings…..

ooops hold on I got another call……

21 minutes later …. click

Don’t be taken in by the scammers.  I have a long list of people that I can refer you to for testimonials.