Watch out - fake support attacks

Every week more than 2000 cyber incidents are reported to the Federal Office for Cybersecurity (BACS). More than half of them are what are called “fake support attacks”.

Victims are contacted by telephone. The callers pretend to be employees of an IT company (such as Microsoft) and claim that the victim's computer is infected with viruses and needs to be repaired. This necessitates downloading software.

But be careful: Anyone who installs such a program on their computer gives the fraudsters access to their system. The fraudsters can then tamper with the device and spy on personal information such as login data, passwords and card information. In most cases, they also try to sell the victim a software licence. Victims are asked to pay for it using a debit card or credit card. For this purpose they request your card information. If you're not careful you can lose a lot of money.

Protect yourself:

• Break off the call immediately. Neither Microsoft nor other software companies will make unsolicited contact with customers for support services.
• Do not allow remote access to your device.
• If a virus has been installed, have your device checked and cleaned by a specialist.
• Do not perform any banking transactions or online purchases until you are certain that the device is once again free of malware.
• If you have given out card information, block the card immediately.
• Change all passwords to prevent fraudsters accessing accounts.