A fraud in which 'Microsoft' phones to say your computer has a virus, or a pop-up screams it, and the fix requires remote access and a fee — the tech support scam — cold-calling since 2008 and, since the mid-2010s, a YouTube genre in which people scam the scammers back. The record's entry for the call about your Windows.
The record notes the pop-up cannot see your computer, that Microsoft does not phone people, and that the remote-access tool is the moment it stops being a nuisance and starts being a theft.
Sighting in a physical newspaper — Tech Support Scam in a lifestyle column, in quotation marks, with a definition in parentheses. It has left the internet.
The record remembers the era of keeping the scammer on the line for an hour to waste his time, and the scam-baiting channels that turned this into a public service with ad revenue.
It is dead. Say something true about it.
