Fraudsters claiming to be calling from a computer support company are tricking people into giving them access to their PCs to scam them into paying to get rid of fictitious viruses.

He was very patient and kept telling me he was treating me like his mother

IT consultant Patrick Cutajar said that, over the past week, he heard of about nine cases of people whose computers were infiltrated by such scammers. They tricked people into giving them access to their PC and then tampered with it to make them believe their computer had viruses.

They then tried to “sell” subscriptions for antivirus software.

In some cases, the computers were actually infected.

Silvana Zarb was one of the people to receive a malicious call. A man with a Filipino accent had been calling her persistently since July, saying she had problems with her computer. He claimed to be calling from Microsoft.

The man called again on Friday and, this time, his persistence paid off and Ms Zarb believed him.

She installed a programme on his guidance giving him access to her computer.

He then told her she had viruses and needed to pay for the software. Alarm bells rang and she ended the conversation.

But she is still not sure whether her PC has been infected because it is with her IT technician.

Similarly, a 48-year-old woman recounted how she spent more than two hours on the phone with an Indian-sounding man. He called her at home and asked for her husband by name.

Her husband was not home, so he told her that her computer would soon shut down because it had been corrupted.

When she asked who he was, he claimed to be from First PC Solution in Żabbar and gave her a telephone number.

When she tried calling later, the number did not exist.

“The whole thing lasted over two hours… He was very patient and kept telling me he was treating me like his mother,” she said.

“When I told him that I’d get my IT technician to sort it, he insisted he wouldn’t be qualified and he was calling from a professional firm.”

The hacker managed to take control of her laptop. At one point, the following words popped up on her screen: “Thank you for your information, now just leave the control of your keyboard and mouse. (You have) 1,495 infected files... 1,718 junk files... 91 corrupted software files…”

She was then told that fixing it would cost €65 for six months’ protection, €105 for a year and €349 for five years. Something seemed wrong and she told the man she would call him back.

Pensioner Anthony Borg was called by a woman who sounded Indian. After getting him to download a program that allowed her access to his PC, she asked for money. He did not fall for it.

Mr Cutajar, managing director at IT support company Eye Tech Limited, said this was a more elaborate version of the Microsoft scam that made the rounds over the past months.

That had preyed on IT illiteracy to scam people into opening up their computers to hacking.

Mr Cutajar cautioned people to never trust anyone calling from a company that they had not dealt with previously.

Fraudsters could hack into their computer and steal personal data, including bank details, he warned.

Questions sent to the police yesterday, asking whether the case was being investigated, remained unanswered at the time of writing.