Three of our customers have recently reported to us that they have received phone calls purporting to be from a company called Online PC Care, which appear to have originated in an Indian call centre. The caller will try to persuade you that your computer is either suffering from a series of errors (they will ask you to open the Windows EventViewer to show you that such errors exist) or they will try to convince you that your PC is overloaded with junk files. They may try to persuade you to allow them to take remote control of your PC to address the issues they have highlighted. They will proceed to try to get you to sign up for a service contract. While there may be a legitimate company called Online PC Care, the callers our customers spoke to would appear to be operating a scam to collect money and/or credit card details from customers who fall for the scam. One customer reported that the caller became abusive when she refused to sign up for a subscription and the caller repeatedly called back every half hour for an afternoon. The caller reported the number to Eircom but was told that, although there were other reports of complaints against the number there was nothing Eircom could do as the calls originated outside Eircom's jurisdiction.
If you receive a call similar to the one described above we would recommend that you terminate the call at the earliest opportunity - the longer you engage them the harder they will try to persuade you. Under no circumstances should you allow them to take control of your PC remotely, nor should you give them credit card details.
Update: A customer has today notified us that a company calling itself Virtual PC Doctor contacted them and that their modus operandi was identical to that described above for Online PC Care. Be aware that they may operate under a number of different guises.
