UK ISP XILO has informed us about a "quite convincing" new telephone scam that is currently doing the rounds and appears to be targeting their broadband customers and potentially also those of other internet providers.

The con is very simple. Customers receive a call from an unknown company, which informs them that their broadband connection has been flagged as having problems. The customer is then directed to a website where they can download a "fix" for the problem.

As some of you might have already expected, this "fix" is completely bogus. Customers who run the software will instead unwittingly be granting the fraudster backdoor remote access to their computers and all of its private personal data.

A similar scam was used against BT last year (here), where the fraudster would phone a customer claiming to be from BT. The caller would inform a customer that their telephone line needs digital upgrade work costing £6 and if it isn’t paid within 10 days then the phone line will be cut off.

It goes without saying that you should never trust somebody who calls YOU to make such claims. The best course of action is to hang-up the phone and contact the ISP directly on its official number to confirm. In addition, no competent ISP would ever unexpectedly phone you first and ask for any kind of personal details.