It’s great to think that someone in India might be really concerned about the status of our computers.  However, it is most likely a scam. My mother-in-law got a call last night.  The caller had a very thick Indian accent.

Caller: Hello, I am calling from the Global Internet Maintenance Department.  We are receiving a lot of messages from your Computer.  You must have a virus.  If you can go to your computer I will walk you through the steps to fix the issue.

Pause

Mother-in-law: Ummm.. my computer is acting weird. I can’t get the Internet to work.  But my daughter-in-law usually fixes my computer.

Caller: Yes, this must be it.  We need to fix it now.

Mother-in-law:  But I don’t know how to do computer stuff.  I need to talk to my daughter-in-law.

Caller: Go get your daughter-in-law NOW.

Mother-in-law:  She doesn’t live here and she’s not here right now.

Caller: I’ll call back later when she is there.

She felt a little uneasy about this at this point and the caller was really pushy.

Mother-in-law:  Why don’t you give me your phone number.  She can call you if she has any questions.

Caller: I don’t know if that will work.

Mother-in-law:  You don’t have a phone number to reach you?

Caller: Yes, I do …

The caller then gave a local number.  When I googled Global Internet Maintenance Department all that comes up are stories of scam attempts.

The computer was crashing, but it was because windows update had to install about 15 updates.  Once the updates were installed and the computer was rebooted, I re-scaned the computer with the AVG Internet Security tool.  No issues!

So, don’t fall for the scam!  Get help from someone that you know not someone on the phone!

Phone Scams