Members of the public are being warned to be on alert after Computer hackers pretending to be from Microsoft and Eir are targeting Irish customers to install a virus which costs up to €600 to remove.
The news comes after a woman named Ann told RTÉ’s Liveline show that she received “two or three calls a week” from someone pretending to be from Eircom. An angry Ann told host Joe Duffy: “They called saying they wanted to fix my computer and when I said Eircom don’t exist anymore, it’s Eir, they hung up.”
Ann further explained that a man with a foreign accent and a 0041 number kept calling her. “I asked where he was ringing from and he said Ireland but when I asked why is was a 0041 number he hung up again.
“My husband started getting text messages from Eircom to say our bill was running very high and to ring a number to pay it. They’re targeting our age group. “I don’t know how they got our house and his mobile number, all claiming to be from Eircom. We got broadband in April and then these phone calls started.”
Both Eir and Microsoft have warned customers not to install any software they feel maybe suspicious and to contact them immediately if they suspect anything unusual whilst online.
H/T Independent.ie