I've always had a very low tolerance for liars, thieves and scam artists.
When I first moved to the big city of Montreal at the age of 17 from a small dairy-farming town in the countryside, I fell for an investment con perpetrated by a friend of a friend - who then conveniently disappeared. As a starving student at the time, I didn't have much cash to invest in the first place, so losing it meant I had to survive on Kraft Dinner and toast for about two months.
But with every cheesy bite I learned to be very paranoid about anything to do with money. When you couple that with my later training as a cynical and questioning journalist, it makes me probably one of the most suspicious people out there.
So you can understand why my personal red alert went off when I answered a call last week from someone saying my home computer was infected with viruses and malware.
Now, I usually never answer calls from numbers that I don't recognize, but I was distracted, tired, frazzled or a humorous combination of all three. I may have been expecting a call from someone. I recall it was a real number that showed on my call display, not one of those 888-888-8888 or 000-000-0000 faked numbers that are easy to spot.
The gentleman at the other end of the line asked for me by name, and when I answered that I was indeed me, he proceeded to tell me that his company had been alerted to suspicious activity from my home PC.
Now, I'm a tech geek - otherwise I probably wouldn't be writing this column - so I already know this is a well-known scam, because nobody can know what is going on inside your home computer from outside.
So, seeing as I had a bit of time, and my frazzled state of mind was giving way to a more mischievous train of thought, I decided to see how far I could push the guy.
"Which one of my computers is affected?" I asked.
I have multiple PCs hooked up to the Internet, not to mention game consoles, iPhones, MacBooks and more (and don't even think about it, I have a vicious guard dog too!).
He didn't have that information.
Well, what's wrong with my computer?
He wanted me to turn on my computer and he would guide me through checking it out. Usually they ask you to type some code or string of text somewhere and when it gives the result they predicted, you become convinced you have a virus. Other scams have you log on to a website, or even allow remote access so they can "help" you - likely installing a backdoor and virus at the same time.
This fellow wanted me to purchase software from his company that would rid me of the problem and prevent it from occurring in the future.
I finally told him I was aware that there was no issue with my PC, that I was well-versed in such things, and I didn't really didn't appreciate his weasel-like efforts.
He asked me what a weasel was (English was not his first language), and when I said "a small, smelly rodent - like a rat," he immediately hung up.
Currently, to best protect your computer, keep it updated and have a quality, frequently updated anti-virus program and anti-malware program - found in stores or online. And your best protection against telemarketers and phone scam artists is to just not pick up the phone.
