I’ve received calls about having to refinance my mortgage;  press 1 to accept the First Alert system that someone bought for me; a Nigerian prince left me money; and a friend is stuck in Istanbul and needs money to avoid jail.

The call I received today was a new one to me:  “Hello, Sir.  My name is ________.  I’m from the International Computer Monitoring service and we’ve received automated reports from your Windows computer that it is not functioning correctly.”

“Really,” I said.  “When do you receive this report?”

“Just today.”

“Wow.  I haven’t had the computer on for a few days.”

“Oh, well, the reports can take up to five days to get to us.”

And on this went until he hung up on me.

Bottom line, total scam.  He wanted access to my computer probably to install some sort of malware and to charge me money for the experience.