The call that starts with “your computer has a virus”

The phone rings and someone tells you your computer is infected. They sound calm and professional. They may already know your name, and sometimes what kind of computer you own. They ask you to install a small program so they can take a look.

In 2025 that call took just over a billion dollars from Americans. Adults over 60 lost 7.75 billion dollars to online crime that year, a 59 percent increase, averaging more than 38,000 dollars each. These are not careless people. The script is very good, and AI voice tools have made it better.

How the call actually goes

• They create urgency: your account is compromised, there is fraudulent activity, your computer is sending spam

• They ask you to install remote-access software so they can help. This is the moment the scam succeeds or fails

• Once connected they show you routine system messages and describe them as infections

• They ask for payment in gift cards, a wire, or cryptocurrency. Real companies never do

• Some will call back weeks later offering a refund for the first scam, which is a second scam

If you already let someone in

Do these in order. It matters more than how it happened.

• Disconnect the computer from the internet, either unplug the cable or turn off the Wi-Fi

• Call your bank and your card issuers from a different phone if you gave any payment details

• Change your email password first, from another device. Email is the key to resetting everything else

• Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere it is offered, starting with email and banking

• Assume the remote-access software is still installed. It usually is, and it usually does not appear in an obvious place

Two rules that prevent almost all of it

Nobody legitimate calls you first about a virus. Not Microsoft, not Apple, not your bank, not your internet provider. If you did not place the call, hang up and dial the number on the back of your card or the company’s real website.

And no real company is ever paid in gift cards. If gift cards come up in any conversation about money, the conversation is a scam, full stop.

If it already happened

Change the password on your email account first, because that is what resets everything else. Then call your bank's fraud line using the number on the back of your card, and report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. If money moved, your bank and the FTC are the right first calls, not an IT company.