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PC Protection

wurzel
Grafter
Posts: 35
Registered: ‎13-01-2010

PC Protection

I had a phone call today from "virtualpcdocter"
Has any one experience of their services ?
14 REPLIES 14
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: PC Protection

Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: PC Protection

Denzil
Grafter
Posts: 1,733
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: PC Protection

If anyone rings you out of the blue to tell you there is something wrong with your PC, you can be fairly sure it is a scam. I hope you didn't reveal any personal details or do anything to your PC per their instructions?
wurzel
Grafter
Posts: 35
Registered: ‎13-01-2010

Re: PC Protection

No I did not allow them access to my PC
I told the Indian Lady that I was running Norton 360 4.0 to which she said that Norton did not
trace all viruses and her check would.
I said that I would check her credentials before any further action and she gave me their Web address and phone No.
Today I had a room chat with Norton (another Indian Lady)
She confirmed that Norton do not find all viruses but they had an expert who could at a cost of £69.99 which would last
for 7 days
4 times during the chat I declined her offer to connect to her expert.
I looked on the virtualpcdoctor website and it appeared legit.
1 Remedial session was £19.99 and you could have 12 for £66.99
So who are the biggest con merchants ?
I have 2 months to run on Norton so advice the best PC protection would be appreciated.
fourfourdevon
Grafter
Posts: 1,101
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎10-09-2010

Re: PC Protection

Believe what you will, but the people that phone you are scammers, a brief search on the internet will find loads of people who have been scammed, news paper reports and trading standards warnings about their antics, but if you really want to get suckered then go ahead.
As for Norton, if it truly was Norton you were talking to (and I have my doubts since I can not find any such service from Norton) then Norton being a legitimate company would at least do you no harm (unlike the scammers who would charge you more, steal your identity and recruit your computer into a zombie bot army) and would probably do you some good.
Much as I don't like Norton products that much (I think there are better solutions) it is out of order to compare them to the scam artists.
hadden
Grafter
Posts: 486
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎27-07-2007

Re: PC Protection

I had one of those phone calls a couple of weeks ago.
When the Indian accented plonker told me that my computer had contacted them to tell them that it was infected with a virus, I just laughed.
It might have been amusing to hear more of this fantasy, and how my computer had told them my name and phone number  Grin
...but I couldn't be bothered.
Mav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22,371
Thanks: 4,725
Fixes: 514
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: PC Protection

I've had two such phone calls in the last couple of weeks.
The second one informed me that they had received thousands of complaints from my ISP due to the amount of errors on my computer. Stiffling my laughter I asked who my ISP was; Either 'AOL or Virgin' was the reply. I told him he is talking complete *&^&*%$£ and to £$%% off.

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: PC Protection

KenA
Grafter
Posts: 92
Registered: ‎28-08-2007

Re: PC Protection

I too had a call from these guys, claiming that they'd been told by Microsoft that my pc had a virus.  They then tried to lead me through a script but it didn't work on my PC.  It was then that they realised I was leading them up the garden path as I was running Ubuntu!
My dad got a call later in  the same day.  His response was "no thanks, my son will fix it".  Sigh!
Denzil
Grafter
Posts: 1,733
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: PC Protection

Quote from: wurzel
I have 2 months to run on Norton so advice the best PC protection would be appreciated.

No antivirus software is guaranteed to find every possible virus. It just means you need to apply a certain amount of common sense and not just rely on the software to protect you. You don't need to pay anybody anything to get good protection, as there is good free stuff out there. For an all-in-one security package Comodo is quite good, as it includes a firewall and antivirus. If you want a second line of defence then run Clamwin as well. It doesn't do real-time scanning, so won't get in the way of other AV software, and you can run a manual scan with it when you feel the need.
Mav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22,371
Thanks: 4,725
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: PC Protection

I've been running AVG, Spybot S & D, Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes  Windows Defender.
I've never had an infection but a few have been stoped and deleted so must be working OK Smiley

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: PC Protection

Comodo doesn't appear to be as good as they claim as they won't let AV-Comparatives publish the  results or perhaps even test it.
For a free antivirus Avira consistently gets very high scores
Have a read here http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests
Steve
Seasoned Pro
Posts: 6,853
Thanks: 336
Registered: ‎13-07-2009

Re: PC Protection

If It's one thing the Germans do get right Its Avira, I use It but the paid version, It's Never let anything through, Oh and I don't bother with third party firewalls either.
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.