NARROWSBURG, NY — Mary Amato, who uses her computer to run a small business on eBay, was recently scammed by a man who claimed to be from Microsoft. Amato was using Windows Mail when she experienced a bit of trouble. She then got a call from a man that sounded to be Indian, who said he was from Microsoft tech support. He said he was there to help and prompted her through a set of instructions, and before long had remote control of her keyboard.

Her computer then displayed what she came to believe was a dummy page, and the man on the phone said, “You’re computer has been hacked,” and he showed her things that he said were viruses.

Soon he asked her, “Ma’am are you allowed to drive without a driver’s license?” He then produced what appeared to be a Microsoft agreement on the screen, and told Amato she is using the Microsoft product illegally. At this point Amoto was certain that she was being scammed. He told her she could no longer use her computer, but if she paid $199 he could restore it to a functioning state. He said, “Just pay the price and you’ll get it back.”

She shut the computer down, and found a local man who could fix it for about $200. After that, she cancelled all of her online accounts.