I was almost taken in by this scam.
A man with a Hindu accent called my dad saying that he was a Microsoft technician and a computer with windows 7 was reporting a security alert (not any other windows OS mind you) I believed it was my laptop due to the constant nagging to upgrade to Windows 10. So Dad handed me the phone, he never said who he was or it was too accented to understand. He told me to hold the windows button and R which brought up a browse box, told me to type in
www.fastsupport.com and it linked me to go to assist, powered by Citrix. I had to enter my name, and some passkey HE gave me. I told him my concerns about using a third party website to look up some corrupted file, but he just kept reassuring me that my security was his company's top priority. I thought maybe he was actually working for Citrix and was going to charge me for security after the fact. While this is happening, I have Norton Security running a full system scan just in case. I downloaded the program and opened it, that's when my windows settings changed before my eyes, and I started to get really nervous. It asked to join the session before me...
Hindu accent, third party site to check my computer? Not even Norton needed to do that! I had just done a system backup so I could take the chance but.... I said no to joining the session, closed the session bringing back my settings but making the Go to Assist desktop icon disappear, and closed the laptop shutting it down.
After a moment he said "mam there seems to be a problem with your connection..." I said "You're right there is! I closed the session and shut down my computer! If you were from Microsoft you wouldn't need some third party site's computer connection to check to see IF there's a problem! You would already know which computer HAD the problem and what it was! I'm sorry, I just don't trust you goodbye." Hung up the phone, and shut off the phone so he couldn't call back.
Boy am I lucky. It was a nerve wracking experience because I'm so trusting of others, it's hard for me to say NO! Now that I see these posts I am so glad I did.
I just hope he wasn't able to get into my system at all. Please reply and let me know what I should do to remove every trace of this just in case. I have already blocked the Go to assist from my computer through Norton just in case.