The fake tech support phone call, and how it works

Someone rings. They are polite, professional, and say they are from Microsoft, Telstra, or your internet provider. They have detected a serious problem with your computer.

This is a scam every single time, without exception. It is worth understanding how it runs, because it is far more convincing than it sounds when described.

The one fact that settles it

No technology company monitors your home computer and rings you about it.

Not Microsoft. Not Apple. Not Telstra, Optus or any internet provider. They have no ability to see that your machine has a problem, and no mechanism to ring you about it if they did.

That single fact resolves every version of this call. If somebody rings you unprompted about a problem with your computer, they are lying, no matter how convincing they sound.

Why it fools sensible people

Described on a page it sounds obvious. On the phone it is not, for several reasons.

They are calm and unhurried. Nothing about the call feels like a scam. They sound like the IT department at a large company, because many of them have been doing this full time for years.

They show you “evidence”. This is the clever part. They walk you through opening a tool built into Windows, often the Event Viewer, which displays a long list of warnings and errors in alarming red and yellow.

Those entries are completely normal. Every Windows computer on earth has hundreds of them. They are routine notes about minor events, and they mean nothing.

But you have opened it yourself, on your own machine, and it looks exactly like proof. That is the moment most people stop doubting.

They give you a reference number. It means nothing, but it feels official.

They are helping you. The emotional framing is not “give me money”, it is “let me fix this for you”. That is much harder to refuse.

What they actually want

Remote access. They ask you to install a program so they can “look at it”. These programs are legitimate and widely used by real IT support, which is part of what makes it convincing. Once installed, they can see and control your screen.

Then money, for a “fix” or a support plan, typically a few hundred dollars.

Then your banking, in the worst cases. With control of the machine they may open your bank, or fake a refund screen showing they accidentally sent you too much and asking you to transfer the difference back.

And a return visit. Once you have paid, you are on a list of people who pay. Expect further calls, sometimes months later, occasionally from someone claiming to be recovering your money for a fee.

What to do when the call comes

Hang up. That is the whole strategy.

You do not need to be polite about it. You do not owe an explanation. You do not need to catch them out or waste their time. Just put the phone down.

If you are uncertain whether it might be real, hang up anyway and ring the company yourself using a number you find independently. A genuine caller will not mind at all.

Do not press any numbers when asked, including any option that claims to remove you from a list. Responding only confirms the number reaches a real person.

If you already let them in

This is recoverable, and the important thing is to act rather than sit with it.

1. Disconnect the computer from the internet. Unplug the cable, turn off the Wi-Fi, or switch off the router. This immediately ends their access.
2. Do not use that computer again until it has been properly checked, and especially do not log into your bank on it.
3. If you paid, ring your bank now, on the number from the back of your card. Same day matters.
4. Change your important passwords from a different device, such as your phone. Email first, then banking.
5. Get the machine looked at. Whatever they installed is still on it. Sometimes it can be cleaned; sometimes the honest answer is that it needs wiping and setting up fresh.
6. Report it at cyber.gov.au and scamwatch.gov.au.

Then tell somebody in your family, because the follow-up calls are the part people are least prepared for.

Reducing the calls

You cannot stop them entirely, but you can reduce them.

• Register on the Do Not Call Register at donotcall.gov.au. It is free and it stops legitimate telemarketers, which makes the remaining calls easier to identify as suspicious.
• Let unknown numbers go to voicemail. Real callers leave messages.
• Turn on your phone provider’s spam call filtering if they offer it. Most now do.

The thing I most want to say

If this has already happened to you, please do not carry it around.

The people running these operations do it every day, all day, with scripts refined over years on hundreds of thousands of targets. Being caught by that is not a failure of intelligence.

The damage nearly always comes from the delay while somebody feels too embarrassed to say anything. If it has happened, ring your bank, ring a family member, or ring me. There is no lecture, and there never has been.