Aug 24, 2016
My 74-year old aunt received a call from a heavily accented person telling her that her Windows 10 machine was being hacked. Said he was from Microsoft. She allowed him access to her machine. He talked her into installing software called Any Desk and took control of her computer. Showed her a bunch of fake warnings and tried to download some "Hacker-Protection" software for which she'd have to pay. She said "no" and he insisted and started to do so. Luckily she had the good sense to hold down the power button on her machine and turn it off. I had her unplug everything and will be reformatting her machine off line. She isn't terribly computer literate and didn't know any better - if someone says he's from Microsoft, she'll believe them. You'd have to be a real lowlife to prey on the elderly like this. Please warn your elderly loved ones about this scam.