Scammers are getting better and better at their job.

This one didn’t cost me any real money, but it cost me more than three days of work on my computer recovering files and reinstalling programs

Read the details below and learn how to avoid being scammed.

www.fastsupport.com

Do not deal with anyone from the above site. It is a scam site.

The short of my experience: needing to repair a minor issue with WINDOWS 10, I googled Microsoft and received a notification on my screen with a phone number. I called the number and the person began to diagnose my issues. Then he offered to examine my computer by remote in detail. Alert #1 should have gone off. Next, his Indian accent should have triggered alert #2. Soon he began offering me support plans for a price. When I quibbled, the price dropped; another quibble, another price drop. Alert #3. I rejected the offer. The all to easy price changes should have been alert#4. Meanwhile he had been looking around my computer. I exited the remote connection as fast as I could once I realized this was all a scam.

Suspicion nagged at me that something might have been planted on my computer. With professional help, my system was declared clean. However, the professional technician made a fatal error which penalized me. She kept deleting files from my original Windows 10 without backing them up. Ultimately, this triggered a WINDOWS crash. As they were legitimate professionals, they helped me restore WINDOWS 10 but my programs were gone. Three days later, with the expense of updating and upgrading many programs which were out of date and no longer supported by WINDOWS or even creating companies, my computer is operating again, very efficiently, better than before and very up-to-date, but at the cost of upgrading/updating many old programs which had been running well.

I am a happy computer camper again as everything is running better than it was and I now have all my programs updated/upgraded to the latest versions.

The moral of the story is “if you get a surprise message on your computer, shut it down.” Of course, this assumes that you have not gone to a site and already opened it, exposing your computer to malicious scammers.

So the bottom line for you to avoid scammers as a computer user?

If you have doubts about what you see on the internet, leave the site.
Power off your computer if you think you may be being attacked.
[You should power off your computer when work is done for the day.]
Consult with a knowledgeable person about your experience and act accordingly.
Like an auto mechanic in the old days, find a computer repair person you trust and who has served you well before and only deal with them.
Professional help will cost you, but it is worth the price if you know the repair person is reputable.

The Internet is a marvellous world of entertainment, information and “how to” explanations. It can be a source of much fun and a vast array of knowledge. To not use the Internet will soon become like not using the phone. Its use will become unavoidable. Technology keeps revolutionizing the world regardless of those who resist. Better to accept it all but learn as much as you can. You don’t have to become a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates, but you should learn how to “dial it,” “speak into the mouthpiece,” and so on. Take a course to learn some basics. You’ll learn a lot and exercise your mental skills in doing so.

Some basic things you should learn: