The case is all too common, but what is awful is that the callers – who were, as you might surmise, criminals – also told the Melbourne-based pensioner that recent heavy rain and storms had caused more computer viruses to circulate.
Unfortunately the pensioner was subsequently fleeced of A$199 – around £80.00 – as the result of what she later called high-pressure salesmanship.
According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos, these kinds of tech calls claiming that PCs belonging to computer users have fallen foul of malware are a significant problem.
"As Sophos explained in a recent podcast, it can be hard for vulnerable people to tell the difference between a legitimate phone call and someone trying to scam you", he said in his security blog.
Against this backdrop, Cluley suggests that tech-savvy internet users need to ensure that their family and friends are on their guard against suspicious tech support calls telling them about infections on their computer.
"Even if the callers do claim to be from Microsoft, it only takes a lapse of common sense for you to hand your credit card details straight down the line to a criminal", he said.