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LPBBEAR

(545 posts)
17. I see this often..
Fri Nov 17, 2023, 07:11 PM
Nov 2023

I'm a Computer Tech. (mostly retired these days) I get calls about this kind of thing frequently.

1. Don't call them.
2. Don't ever let them remotely access your computer.
3. Immediately stop whatever you're doing and do a hard shutdown. (Hold the power button in and count slowly to 15. The computer should shut completely off by 15)
4. If you made the mistake of allowing them remote access to your computer check with your bank, credit card company and any other financial institution you might be doing business with for signs of unauthorized payments.
5. If you did allow remote access scan your computer with an updated copy of an antivirus application and maybe something like Malware Bytes. Don't trust your system until you gotten clean results from your scans. If they had remote access they may have installed keystroke logging software on your system or accessed saved passwords or any number of other possibilities. Do a thorough scan as I mentioned earlier.

In most cases a hard shutdown will stop the issue.

All of you should consider moving away from Windows to a Linux based system. More reliable, more secure, and cost free Linux will work fine for most computer users reading this and will likely work just fine on your current computer. Much of the software you are probably using runs fine in Linux. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Brave, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, heck even Microsoft Edge runs in Linux these days. As a political progressive you really shouldn't be supporting a monopoly like Microsoft.

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