Phone scam making rounds in EDC

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office has received reports of people receiving a telephone call from someone identifying themselves as a computer technician working for a reputable computer company such as Dell. The caller tells the victim they are certified to work on Microsoft products and they received warning messages from the victim’s computer that it is vulnerable and they called to fix the problem.

Officials are warning people this is a scam. Microsoft or their partners do not make unsolicited phone calls, often referred to as cold calls, about your computer’s security or software.

Cyber criminals may ask you to go to a legitimate website and install software which will allow them to access your computer remotely in order to fix it. Once you do this, your computer and personal information is vulnerable.

If you receive a phone call like this, hang-up and refuse to become a victim.