Staying Safe Online · Backups & Bad Days · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: Helping Parents After a Scam Call

Help Mom and Dad calm down and clean up after a fake tech support call.

The phone call

Your parents call you, upset. This morning a man phoned saying he was from "Microsoft Support". He said their computer had a virus.

He talked Dad into installing a program so he could "fix" it. Then the man moved the mouse around on his own. At the end, he asked for $300 in gift cards. Mom got suspicious and hung up.

Now they feel foolish and worried. First, tell them this is a very common scam and they did well to stop it. Then, step one: make sure the man can't get back in.

Ask Dad to turn off Wi-Fi on the computer for now.

Clean up the computer

Next, remove the program the scammer had Dad install. You both find it in the list of apps in Settings and uninstall it.

Then you open the real app that checks the computer for harmful programs, and run a scan. It finds nothing.

Mom asks if it's safe to go back online now.

Money and passwords

Dad admits he told the man his email password, to "verify" the account. And Mom had started reading him her credit card number before she hung up.

Back online, you help them change passwords. Then you call the card company together, using the number on the back of the card.

Safe and ready

Mom asks one last thing. "What if he locked or deleted our photos?" You check, and the photos are fine. But they have no copy anywhere else.

You plug in a new external drive and turn on File History. You also sign them in to OneDrive for a second copy in the cloud. Then you report the call at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.