028-011-3225

I received a telephone.call from what sounded like an Indian source claiming to be Microsoft. They said they were contacting me because of the large number of problem reports being sent to Microsoft by my computer. (This was news to me?) I was not online at the time but the caller was able to correctly identify the customer ID on my Windows software. He started to lead me through a procedure which would have given him remote access to my computer. I baulked at this - at which point he said 'no problem' he would arrange for an engineer to call to fix the problem. I expected to hear no more but a few days later I received a call from another (maybe the same?) Indian who gave his phone number as 0280 113 225. He said his address was 20 Quin St, London EC4R 2BB. He sought remote access but when this was refused he put the phone down.

My call came from 0281 317 1272 with the same script. I kept him on the line for a while for amusement, and to give him less time to scam someone else.

I have heard of this scam. If you let them have access to your computer, they make it inoperable, and want a substantial amount of ransom to unlock it.

Why can't Interpol shut down these crooks?