There is a new scam going the rounds in the UK.

I got a phone call on Friday from someone claiming to represent "The Windows Support Centre". They were claiming they had detected problem data from my computer and it was probably infected with a virus and that if I would start up my computer they would help me sort it out. There was something about the call that just did not ring true and I told them that my computer's OS is Linux (which it is) and that it was highly unlikely that it was infected and hung up. In fact, my wife and daughter's computers both run Windows and both have AV installed and kept up to date. My daughter told me she has hers set to scan daily and just to be sure I scanned my wife's computer and nothing - except for a bunch of tracking cookies which I removed anyway.

Today, I received my regular computing magazine and in the news section there was an item about the Metropolitan Police investigating a series of frauds involving unnecessary computing support and have recently shut down 19 websites operating this scam. One of the magazine's own journalists followed up one of these cold calls and after they had persuaded the journalist to open some log files which contained some innocuous error messages then sold him software to "fix" the problem for about 90 GBP. In fact the software they sold him was all available on the web for free. The magazine eventually traced the company to a website based in Blackburn and reported the matter to Blackburn Trading Standards who are now investigating.

The bottom line is be aware these scams are going the rounds so if you get a call on the lines I received then politely tell that you can sort your own computer and hang up. If they give you a company name, it might be worth contacting your local trading standards.

I would not be surprised if this scam was not confined to the UK. And if it is, I am sure it soon won't be.