Scam caller asks: “Is your computer running slowly?”

Today I received a phone call offering to fix my PC. Instead of thinking “wow, how kind of someone to offer to help me”, my suspicious mind naturally contemplated other motives.

It turns out that this is indeed a telemarketing scam, and a widespread one. My caller identified his company as On-line PC Care, but they apparently do business also as On-line PC Doctors, and perhaps other names. They do business from India.

This scam has targeted people in the UK, Ireland, Australia, U.S., and Canada. Today was at least the second time they called me this year. Apparently the routine goes something like this:

1. The caller asks if your computer is running slowly. In some cases they may tell you that they have detected that it is.
2. The caller asks you to sit at your computer, and execute some commands to see the Windows event viewer for applications. Naturally there are errors in the log, as applications often have various minor errors, especially web browsers hitting errors trying to load downloaded scripts or site data. Most of this is normal, harmless stuff, but of course the caller doesn’t tell you that.
3. The caller then gives you instructions to follow, in order to allow them to download software to remotely control your PC. This is supposedly to allow for diagnostic and repair, but who knows what they are installing? It could be a trojan horse, or keylogger, to find financial records or use your PC for nefarious purposes.
4. The caller also asks you for your credit card details, so they can bill you for their technical assistance.

Even if this company does provide a useful service, which is doubtful, their business practices are shoddy. They ignore the fact that in some jurisdictions their calls are illegal. Here in Canada there is a government operated Do Not Call registry. The public may register their phone numbers to avoid telemarketing calls and companies, with a few exceptions, are legally required to honour this list and not contact those people. I am registered on that list, so this company contravenes Canadian law whenever they phone me. There are similar registries in the U.S. and UK, which this company ignores.

If your computer is running slowly, and this does happen as stuff accumulates over time, there are good tools available to fix that. Many of those tools are free. If you need personal assistance, do yourself and your local economy a favour and find a local service person. I guarantee that the experience will be more positive than dealing with this underhanded telemarketer.