This concerns the fake PC tech scam. Essentially some fiend in a boiler room, usually in South Asia, wants to coax you into dropping your firewall and security measures and play havoc with your system, possibly with the goal of then selling you the ''solution'' to the problem they caused. Worse yet they might plunder your hard drives for whatever can be sold or used against you. They count on most computer owners being ''appliance users'' who don't understand what's under the hood and being easily misled.
They may claim to have a pile of complaints because your system is spewing spam, or else instruct the user to open a shell and look at perfectly innocuous system feedback and claim there is something dangerous happening. This is the PC equivalent of the crooked auto mechanic who squirts oil on your axle and wants $1600 to ''repair'' the non-damage.
Here's the verdict straight from Microsoft:
Avoid tech support phone scams
https://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx
Strange call pretending to be from Microsoft tech support
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/f ... 2e-2ab81645553d
The FTC rounded up a few gangs of these fiends a couple years ago. Report their replacements to help shut down more crooks.
FTC Halts Massive Tech Support Scams
Tens of Thousands of Consumers Allegedly Tricked Into Paying for Removal of Bogus Viruses and Non-Existent Spyware, and Allowing Scammers to Remotely Access their Computers
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases ... h-support-scams