Argh, scammers.
I had one try and catch me out at work once.
I was covering Reception for the day, a job I'm not too confident doing in the first place, although I try my best. Switchboard is easy enough, and if you know who you want to talk to/are happy to take advice on who would be best to talk to about something, I know most members of staff well enough to know if they can handle something/help with something specific. Tell me about a problem, though, or ask me something I haven't anticipated, and I freeze, rabbit-in-headlights style.
So, on this occasion, I was on Reception (not my usual job, I was needed for emergency cover), and I received a phone call from a man who was extremely insistent that I follow his instructions immediately. (Later, I learned it was a scam, as I suspected.) I didn't catch who/where he was calling from, but he was insistent that there was an error message on my computer screen (there wasn't), and that I should follow his direct instructions.
He became more and more irate every time I said that, no, there was no error message on my screen, and that if there was a problem, I could connect him to our IT manager, who would know more about any problems. Eventually I just cut him off mid-sentence and connected him to our IT manager (sorry!), as he's a no-nonsense person. I did suspect it was a scam, but still had a slight edge of paranoia that there
could be something wrong - but at least if I forwarded it to IT, they would be able to do something about it if there really was a problem.
Sorry, but I'm not taking instructions from some random stranger over the phone who won't even explain to me what I would be doing. I took a Psychology class at school, and have read/seen videos/heard all sorts of stories about why you shouldn't take instructions from someone over the phone like that. (Eg one experiment where nurses were told by a "doctor" over the phone, a certain amount of a drug to inject patients with, that could be dangerous. Of course they were stopped by the experimenters before they actually did it.)
If I'm taking instructions for use on work computers, it's either from senior staff, or the IT department.
Turned out I was right - it was a scam. Apparently these people call you up saying there's an error on your screen/problem with your network, and if you just follow their instructions and go to xyz website and click on abc link/fill in efg details, it'll all be "fixed". (Ie, you get a virus/they hack your system/use you as a spambot/extort money, etc etc.)
They rely on the first person they speak to being naive/trusting/alarmist, and do NOT want to speak to your IT department. If you're in any doubt, I'd send a quick email/connect them to, the IT dept.
Apparently they tried it on the mother of one of our IT guys. She's a bit of a technophobe, but extremely stubborn. She told them there's no point telling her what to do, as she hardly knows how to even turn on the PC. But her son's an IT technician, so if there's a problem, he'd fix it. Thank you, buh-bye.
