I'm from Microsoft, there's something wrong with your computer

[mudskipper]

It seems my mother gave control of her computer to a gentleman that she couldn't understand very well who seemed to know all about her computer.

I haven't got much more out of her than he gave her a number to type in (to what? Remote assist?)

So I need to go round and sort out the mess. Any hints what I should be looking for? Obv will run full virus scan.

[northernladuk]

The original disks for the re-install..

HTH

[mudskipper]

The original disks for the re-install..

HTH

[cojak]

And a backup drive, along with instructions on how to use it.

[SimonMac]

It seems my mother gave control of her computer to a gentleman that she couldn't understand very well who seemed to know all about her computer.

I haven't got much more out of her than he gave her a number to type in (to what? Remote assist?)

So I need to go round and sort out the mess. Any hints what I should be looking for? Obv will run full virus scan.

To be fair I would go for a full rebuild, odds are it was a scam where they say something is wrong with your computer and offer to fix for a fee, check her credit card/bank statement etc

[FatLazyContractor]

Some advice from Action fraud: Watch out for

Essentially, check with the bank for any damage done ASAP.

[Bacchus]

Muchos sympathy. My mother managed to contract one of those ransom viruses that encrypts all the files. Wipe clean and total rebuild in the end

Sounds like your mum was conned into using something like Team Viewer - not sure how it would work without her downloading a piece of software (or maybe the scamsters managed to install it if they had control for a while), that requires a number to be entered, but once you have entered it you can use a password to gain control from any PC; this is the product I use to support the old girl now. Very useful, but can't overcome ignorance (I nearly wrote stupidity, but despite being nearly 92 my old mum is far from stupid, as I'm sure is yours, but they seem ignorant of the dangers)

[Dactylion]

It seems my mother gave control of her computer to a gentleman that she couldn't understand very well who seemed to know all about her computer.

I haven't got much more out of her than he gave her a number to type in (to what? Remote assist?)

So I need to go round and sort out the mess. Any hints what I should be looking for? Obv will run full virus scan.

tbh the bloody PC is the least of her problems - they probably cut an image of her disks to scan through at their leisure. (If I were a thieving scrote it's what I would do)

So you'll only have to change all her passwords for everything she has ever logged into.
Close all her bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards etc etc before the scrotes rob her blind.

[mudskipper]

This isn't cheering me up

[mudskipper]

On the plus side, she doesn't use online banking.