Okay, maybe they are. I mean, how the hell would I know what is safe or not? I just think that, personally, mine are NOT! It's like this y'all.. You have to have passwords for absolutely everything. From your work's computer login, to company email, your TV account, bank account, internet account, CMP, etc etc...
Certain things are absolutely necessary on a computer. Operating system, anti-virus software and enough disk space and memory to do what you want to do. Oh, and the software to easily accomplish what you want to do.
While this warning is aimed more at older people, anyone can fall victim to scams like this, especially those who always think that people who call have the best of intentions. Not necessarily.
This press release from the Maine AARP details how the scam works.
When I couldn't activate my re-installed Windows 8 the other night, I called Microsoft tech support and spoke with a guy in India who was very easy to understand and very knowledgeable about my problem and corrected it by taking control of my computer for 5 minutes.
This federal government employee watched up to 6 hours of porn a day on his computer at work and has managed to keep his job!
Some of us can't get away with it for 6 minutes, but I digress ;-)
Maybe it's a little overkill, I'll admit but I've lost precious data to a failed hard disk drive before and now I'm almost paranoid about it to the point I have 6 hard disks spinning plus an off site backup...