Just to let you know of a computer phishing scam that is becoming prevalent.
Yesterday evening my mother received a telephone call from a man, with an indian accent, saying that he was with Microsoft and understood that her computer was running slowly. She is pretty certain he mentioned her by name.
He asked her if she could log on so that he could remote access her computer to put it right. Luckily I deal with her computer so she refused and gave him my number and suggested that he rings me - he hasn't. My mother rang me and I got her to do 1471 but it said 'no number' (not 'withheld number').
I have reported the call to Kent Police headquarters (01622-690690) and have been informed that this is happening a lot and that some people have logged on and have had a virus / phishing software installed on their computer (with consequences of loss of private data etc). The callers are using ' Microsoft' or 'Go Green' as their business name.
I have spoken to BT to discuss if the caller rings me whether a trace can be made. They say that 'No number' means it is an international call and that the most common method is for a caller in the UK to use a satellite phone and route the call through the international calls so it cannot be traced.
The police are building up intelligence on this and have found that both directory and 'ex-directory' numbers are getting the call and do not as yet have enough information to localise where the names and numbers are being sourced.
Beware such calls obviously - and if you get one let the police criminal intelligence team know with as much detail as possible. They are particularly interested in whether the caller uses a personal name - as this indicates more than just number calling from the directory.
