Has anyone heard of "virtual pc doctor"? A friend asked me to look into this. She received an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from a company with the above name saying that there has been alot of computer problems in her area, and that they can fix the problems but first they need to access her computer to find the errors. She was given a website to go to, a password kinda thing to enter and then voila, they were in her computer. Anyhow to make a long story longer, she realized afterward that perhaps they were not legit, and is now worried about what they could have done. I told her the possibilities were infinate, from identity theft, to viruses to phishing and on and on. Or they could be legit but i doubt it...or, at the end of it all they spouted off all the errors they supposedly found and said for 250 dollars they could fix it, and this would give her a subscription for their service to continue...so it could be just a straight forward financial scam....has anyone heard of them and if so, what is their game if any and what do you suggest for her now that she has already given them access at least once. 4 people need an answerI do too

how do i do a clean reinstallation of windows?

On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:42:12 +0000, alalcam wrote: > how do i do a clean reinstallation of windows? Boot from the Windows CD and follow the prompts. Ken Blake (MS MVP)

Hang on guys, I think we're all getting a little jumpy about this. First let me qualify, I don't work for these so called "scammers" but at the same time, I'm not convinced this is a complete scam. I just got off the phone and just as the first lady said the fellow introduced himself as calling from "Virtual PC Doctor" not Microsoft and he guided me quite eloquently aside form the Indian accent to my event viewer and tried to make me believe the errors and warnings listed there were indeed indicative of issues on my machine that could be harmful and that he could help me "drag them out" was the phrase he used. :-) I allowed him to guide me to his website <www.virtualpcdoctor.com> (not sure if i'm allowed to put a URL in the post so that may be edited out) where there is a range of PC protection software for sale. There is also a remote support link which they guide you to in the call. Agreed, I was not sure enough about the outfit to allow a connection to my machine but, there is also a phone number for the company that is not a rip-off 084.. or 09... number. You choose your flag and you get a local number. The kind of scam sites your talking abou very rarely give details on how to contact them. This would lead me to believe that maybe there's something legit about this outfit. I agree the scare tactics they're using to solicit customers could be a bad business idea, but it could just be an outfit trying to provide a support service. I think the people on here are jumping to conclusions and frightening people with instructions to clean out their PCs and cancelling their cards. Would you recommend that after visiting swathes of other websites that collect credit card details to pay for services?

Well Said Ken.

A scam is a scam, whether it's dressed up with a web site that appears legitimate or not, the question that still remains is ... why are they using cold calling ?If a doctor cold called you and told you that you may be infected with a disease would you believe the doctor ?If an auto mechanic cold called you and told you that your car has an issue that you are unaware of, would you believe the auto mechanic ?An episode such as this one can be boiled down to one issue ... allowing a complete stranger access to your computer.Who in their right mind would allow a complete stranger access to their computer just because they cold called you and said there was an issue or issues with it ?If a complete stranger came to your door and stated what the cold caller did, would you allow them physical access to your computer ?MowGreen Windows Expert IT Pro - Consumer Security