Beware of the Windows scamsters

South Africans have become the latest targets of a group of cyber-criminals purporting to offer support services for US technology giant Microsoft.

Fake call centre employees - with Indian accents - have attempted to strong-arm their victims into buying anti-virus software by claiming their computers are infected with viruses.

A Durban woman, Chandra Naidu, used social media to warn people about the scam, to which she nearly fell victim. Naidu said she received a call from a man and a woman with Indian accents claiming to be from a Windows service centre in Johannesburg.

"Please don't entertain any such calls," Naidu said. "The man had remote access to my computer and threatened to block it if I didn't buy a Windows anti-virus system. He did close everything down on my screen. We argued over the phone. I asked him to call back."

Naidu said she was told by Microsoft that it was having problems with scamsters.

She is considering opening a criminal case.

Gita Pather, director of the Wits Theatre, at the University of the Witwatersrand, also shared her experience on social media.

"I got a call from a man purporting to represent Microsoft who said in a heavy Indian accent that I had opened a file that contained a virus.

"The company had picked it up and he was on the phone to 'help' me.

"I asked when I had opened this file, knowing that I haven't used either of my computers for quite a while, instead relying on my iPad."

Pather said she smelt a rat.

"He replied, 'Madam, we will tell you everything, what date, what time, everything. Just turn your computer on'.

"I told him to f*** off."

According to Indian media, Microsoft has filed a case with the New Delhi police claiming that cyber-criminals have duped more than 3.3million users since 2014.

Microsoft SA representatives and the police had not responded to queries by the time of publication.