Calls from Microsoft

Going to take a minute or three about something that's been coming up of late.  People are getting phone calls from someone (usually with a non-English accent) saying they are with Microsoft and that Microsoft has detected a virus on the computer.  They ever offer to clean it for you.

This is a scam to gain entry to your computer and use it to attack other computers, use it for an e-mail spam server or steal or your login and password information.  Microsoft will rarely if ever call you.  It costs too much money.  Most likely, these people are just going through a list of numbers cold calling people.

The only thing you should do in this case is hang up.  They can not gain access to your computer unless you allow them to do so.  You should only give access to your computer to people you trust.

If you think your something is going on with your computer, update your anti-virus and full scan.  Then update your anti-malware and run a full scan.  Yes, this can take a long time, but it's worth spending that time now rather than trying to backup all your data and re-installing Windows later.