12 Aug 2026 · 7 min read
The remote-access scam, and how to end the call
Someone rings claiming to be from your telco, your bank, or Windows support. Here is exactly what they want and what to do the second you suspect it.
This is the single most common thing we are called out to clean up after, and it is worth saying at the start: the people who fall for it are not careless or gullible. The script is built by professionals, it is refined constantly, and it works on exactly the instincts that make someone a careful person in the first place.
How the call is built
Every version of this scam has the same three parts, in the same order.
- Authority. A company you already trust — your telephone provider, your bank, Microsoft, sometimes the NBN itself.
- A problem you cannot check. Suspicious traffic from your connection, a virus reported to them, a refund owed to you. Always something invisible from your side.
- A fix that requires access. They need to connect to your computer to show you, or to process it.
The third part is the whole point. Everything before it exists to make that request feel reasonable.
Why your antivirus does not stop it
The software they ask you to install is genuine remote-support software — the same tools legitimate IT companies use, ours included. It is not malware, it is not disguised, and it has a valid publisher signature.
Your antivirus therefore has no reason to block it, because nothing is technically wrong. You installed a legitimate program and then gave someone permission to connect. From the computer's point of view that was your decision, and no security product overrides a user's explicit choice.
What to do while the call is happening
If you have not installed anything yet
Hang up. Not "I will call you back", not "let me check with my husband" — just end the call. You owe a cold caller nothing, including politeness.
Do not press a number to be transferred to a supervisor, and do not let them prove legitimacy by reading your name and address back to you. That information is available from a dozen breached databases and proves nothing whatsoever.
If they are already connected
- Disconnect the internet — pull the cable from the router, or switch the Wi-Fi off at the router itself
- That ends their session immediately, regardless of what is on screen
- Do not shut the computer down if you can avoid it; leaving it as-is helps us see what was done
- Then ring us, or any competent technician, before using the machine again
If money or passwords changed hands
Speed matters more than anything else here, and the order matters too.
- Card or bank details
- Ring your bank immediately on the number printed on the back of your card. Never a number the caller gave you, and never one from a website they directed you to.
- A password
- Change it from a different device — your phone is fine. Start with your email account, because whoever controls your email can reset everything else.
- Remote access, but nothing else
- Still assume they looked. Change the passwords for banking and email, from another device.
- A gift card or crypto payment
- Report it, but be realistic: these are chosen by scammers precisely because they are close to irreversible. Focus on securing what is left.
What we check afterwards
A proper clean-up after a remote-access session is not just uninstalling the software they used. We look for what was left behind so it cannot happen again without another phone call.
- Remote-access tools, including ones installed to run at startup quietly
- New user accounts on the computer, which is a common way to keep a way back in
- Changes to browser settings, saved passwords and stored payment details
- Scheduled tasks and startup entries added during the session
- Whether anything was copied off the machine, as far as that can be determined
That work typically runs $80–180 depending on what we find, and it is the same job whether the call was ten minutes ago or last month. See our virus and malware removal service for what is included.
Preventing the next one
You cannot stop the calls — the numbers are dialled in bulk and being unlisted makes little difference. What you can do is make the household rule explicit, and make it simple enough that nobody has to make a judgement call under pressure.
Tell that to everyone in the house, particularly anyone who is home alone during the day and inclined to be helpful to callers. It is the single most effective thing you can do, and it costs nothing.