Turn off Remote Access

As a follow up to recent posts about phone scammers, here is a proactive way to protect yourself. 

If the scammers can’t get on to your pc in the first place then they can’t do the damage. It is highly unlikely that anyone legitimate will ask for remote access.

So for Windows 10 in the bottom left search box 

type “Remote Assistance” by the time you get to the A, it will be showing “Allow Remote Access to your computer”  It is important to get as far as the A, because it shows Remote Desktop and that is not what you are after.

Select the Remote Assistance option.

This shows the System Properties Window from a Windows 10 Home system

This shows the System Properties from a Windows 10 Pro system

Uncheck the tick box beside "Allow Remote Assistance Connections to this computer" and click Apply at the bottom of the windown and you are Done.

Again, tell your Nan or better yet do it for her.

Show your Mum and Dad and share it with everyone you know.

The remote access option is turned on by default in a new windows installation and that is what is making it easy for these scammers to carry out this despicable fraud that targets anyone. Let's at least try to make it harder for this scum to succeed.

The more people I speak to about this, the more I find have been caught out in some way. They dont care who you are, just what they can get out of you.