Phones scams are still the most common type of scam we see people falling victim to in our local community. We saw another one last week. In this one the scammer was posing as the Fraud Protection Team from the bank that the victim happened to be with, which is probably why she was initially convinced. Luckily her and her husband figured out what was happening before allowing the scammer access to their bank accounts, but the phone call went on for about four hours before they finally hung up on the scammer. By then the scammer had been in her computer for an extended period which means that he had plenty of time to access any passwords that were saved in her internet browsers, or get into her emails, or load spyware or malware onto her computer.
As people have become more aware of scams, the scammers have started claiming to be the solution when they are, of course, still the problem. So instead of saying that your internet speeds are slow, they're now saying that you've already been scammed or 'hacked' and that they're calling to assist you with this.
These scams almost always involve installing some software on your computer to provide remote access to the scammer. In this last case it was an application called AnyDesk, but we've also seen UltraViewer used. In fact, any remote access software can be used in this way. Here I will reiterate again that if a stranger calls you and wants you to install software on your computer, don't do it - just hang up.
If you think there's any chance that a phone call might be legitimate, you can always call the company back on their official phone number and check. But the chances of a large company contacting you directly, offering to provide customer services that you've not even asked for are, I would suggest, quite remote.