My neighbor called me the other day with an interesting tale. He'd received a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, who said they'd detected errors on his computer and were calling to help him fix it. He wanted to know if this was legit.

It's a scam I've encountered before. Had my neighbor continued with the call, the scammer would have talked him into opening remote access into his computer. The scammer would then "prove" the computer needed fixing by opening up error logs, which are always full of cryptic-sounding messages even on a working computer.

Next comes the big sell: various levels of "support" costing hundreds of dollars. Even if you say no, they're already into your computer, logging every key you type and siphoning your bank info and other juicy details. You're left with a computer which, if it wasn't infected before, certainly is now. And you're out several hundred bucks at best, life savings at worst.