Microsoft Windows scammers threaten to blow up Irish Garda station

Internet scammers from the Indian sub-continent threatened to blow up an Irish Garda station after the country's hi-tech crime unit confronted them over the telephone.

Gardaí in North Cork had apparently received numerous reports about the fraudsters, who cold call victims pretending to be working for 'Microsoft Windows'.

They then try to con victims into downloading what they claim is free anti-virus software, but which actually logs the victims' bank account details, according to an Irish Examiner report.

The scammers also used VoIP technology to route the calls from outside the country via "their Irish base number", making it appear more genuine to the victims.

Superintendent Pat McCarthy, who is leading the Garda investigation into the scam, told the newspaper that things turned ugly when his detectives phoned the fraudsters to warn them the game was up.

"The man on the end of the phone threatened to bomb our Garda station. These are ruthless people who will stop at nothing to get what they want. They are not ringing for the good of your health," he reportedly said.

"There will be computer users out there who will think these people are genuine, but they are not. If people get these calls they should hang up straight away and ring their local Garda station."

This is just the latest example of Microsoft scammers using widespread user confusion over internet security in order to defraud countless victims.

More common cases see the scammers trying to persuade the victim that their PC is infected with malware, before selling them fake anti-virus products or services to supposedly fix the problem.

In March, for example, banking security vendor Trusteer reported that customers had received calls from a man claiming to work for 'Microsoft Windows Solutions'.

Microsoft itself revealed in June that 21 per cent of UK computer users and 15 per cent globally had been hit by cold call scammers.

More worryingly, nearly a quarter of those 15 per cent were tricked into following the scammer's instructions, and 79 per cent suffered some kind of financial loss.