This was originally written in 2019 when SOSCC was still in business.

Ok peeps, here's my "do good thing" for the day. Even though I'm making a bunch of money off of this and my competitors will probably hate me for it, but I'm really tired of good people getting ripped off because they have been freaked out by a phone call. Please tell your friends, family and acquaintances.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE MICROSOFT, DELL OR HP SUPPORT CENTER THAT WILL CALL YOU ON THE PHONE! Your computer IS NOT reporting errors to them, your IP address is not leaking to the internet and your windows subscription does not need to be renewed!

DO NOT LET THESE PEOPLE ON YOUR COMPUTER! While they are talking to you they are uploading stuff to your computer and possibly download files from your computer. They will trash your computer or lock you out when you say no to their services.

This is a scam they will steal your credit card number or your bank account if you send them a check via the pre-paid FedEx envelope they will have so thoughtfully provided.

The other manifestation of this scam is a blue or red web page or a box saying that your internet provider, Microsoft and antivirus vendor says that your files, bank account and passwords have been hacked/exposed and that you should call some 800/855/877 number to get it fixed.

If this happens the web page usually can't be closed and your browser is locked. To fix this,
RIGHT CLICK on your task bar (usually at the bottom of your screen) and then
LEFT CLICK on Task Manager. When it opens up, make sure that you are viewing the processes or applications tab (the one on the left). Windoze 10 users will just usually see a list of open programs.
LEFT CLICK on the line that has the name of whatever web browser you are using (Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) and then
LEFT CLICK on the End Task button. Do this for however many lines of the web browser are listed. And you are done.
I would recommend running an antivirus and anti-malware scan just to make sure that nothing got left behind.

If you see a box asking to restore your prior session when you relaunch your browser, click on the X or click on NO. If you say YES, you will be back on the web page that gave you fits.

If you are running Edge, you will need to disconnect your internet and then manually close the tabs or windows that the automatically restore (isn't Microsoft thoughtful?) just did.
If you are offered a box asking if you want the previous session restored, either say NO or click on the X to close the box.

If you have let one of those cretins on your computer and gave them a credit card number or checking account number. Notify the appropriate financial institution and CLOSE the associated accounts and open new ones. Have your PC thoroughly scanned by a computer professional. If you had a file in your My Documents folder called passwords.doc, you should probably consider those user names and passwords to have been compromised.