Okay – not just Ickenham and not new, but we’ve had an interesting letter from someone who was hit by someone claiming to be from Talk Talk. The same day, a neighbour (who’s having operating system issues) told me Microsoft had called to help him with his computer issues. He very nearly fell for it but hung up when asked to give the caller remote access to his computer.

I always hang up immediately, as I did yesterday when an obviously non-Western voice said “Hello, I’m Tony and I’m calling from Microsoft.” I suggest you do the same.

We’re not going to make a habit of warning residents about these calls. This is an exception because we have such a clear account of one resident’s experience. We won’t give their name because it would make them a target to scammers and vendors of all kinds – especially internet and phone service providers.

Here goes:

Last week we took three phone calls within 24 hours from what sounded like a call centre for Talk-Talk which is our internet and phone provider. The caller (number withheld) knew my name and (obviously) phone number and that I was a Talk-Talk customer. He said that there was a security problem with our internet router which appeared to be being used by unauthorised users and that I should immediately log-on to my computer and he would talk me through the procedure to fix the problem and thus prevent all my personal data being’stolen’.

When I asked for his name and number the caller immediately rang off  . . . . . . but they tried twice more, each time ringing off when challenged.

I don’t know whether other residents who use different internet suppliers have been similarly targeted or whether this is just related to Talk-Talk users but I thought that you might want to pass this on in your publications.

Passed on with many thanks.