Authorities are asking the public to be wary of a scam in which scammers are calling unwitting computer owners and tricking them into giving up personal information by showing them false displays citing viruses on the machine.
Sgt Carol Ogrinc of the New Canaan Police Department warned complaints had come in that the callers will claim the Internet Service Provider for the potential victims is reporting serious virus problems from that computer, then directs the victim to open up an error tracking program that they claim shows some serious problems occurring on the machine.
In reality, the program Windows Event Viewer tracks errors, but they are typically benign errors logged with serious words like "critical" but resolved internally. The less technically-savvy are scared into thinking there are issues that need to be remedied immediately.
The callers are then scammed into paying the company an amount of money, typically a very specific amount like the $206.13 requested from a New Canaan victim, who also turn over access to the computer remotely to the caller.
Ogrinc said never trust anyone contact YOU about computer-related issues and, instead, if a problem on the machine is noticed, take it to a qualified professional, in-person. Never conduc this sort of business over the phone and never give out credit card information.
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