A client from Sun City Hilton Head called recently after she received a phone call from "a guy from Windows," claiming he was receiving error messages from her computer and wanted to help. He had a heavy accent.

The caller wanted her to enter a special code into her computer to give him remote access to her computer. She was suspicious, refused to cooperate and hung up.

She called me to see whether she had done the right thing. She had. Caller ID showed he was calling from 253-802-0308. I Googled the phone number and found many references to this scam. Google the phone number yourself and see. Also, he might not have been really calling from that number; the bad guys can fake Caller ID, too.

Then today, the same guy called me with the same story. I said I already knew about his scam, and he protested. I said I had already searched for his phone number and read about his operation. Spouting profanity, he hung up.

Paul J. Shane

Okatie