Calls from 546-659-4152: what's going on?

Calls from this number are fraudulent and are costing our neighbors money.   Too many are falling for it.  The frauds call the same phone number several times a day. Your caller ID does not give a name.  Out of curiosity or whatever you finally answer.  Let me give you the details on what they do:

1. The tell you that you have some malware on your computer  (If you can understand them.   The person on the other end has a very thick east Asian accent.)
2. They will ask you to run eventvwr, an application that shows the log of all activities on your computer.  (For windows, go to This log will always have warning messages and errors in it.  It has nothing to do with malware or viruses.)  It is normal operation to get errors.  But they tell you that you have malware and viruses and your computer is in danger.  They ask to log on to your computer to fix the erros.
3. They ask you to download Teamviewer (you might already have it, but that doesn't matter)  You give them an ID and password that teamviewer generates and they get control of your computer (Note that I use Teamviewer too.  Teamviewer is not the problem; the problem is the person on the other end. )
4. They will start asking for money.  They will get your credit card information.  (If you have fallen for this fraud, the credit card info is probably being sold on the criminal market.  Get a new credit card.)
5. They will run a number of free, open source and readily available programs that will always show that your computer has some problems.  I think their favorite is CCleaner, which everyone should be using.  You don't have to pay $100 for them to use it  
6. They may have you agree to a contract.  If you do that, then you may not be able to stop payment on your credit card by reporting the fraud.

So, as a community we are in uncharted territory.  Since it looks like everyone is being called, our personal information has been compromised!  That probably includes our social security numbers.  We have to assume that someone is selling that information and we know that this one company is using the information.

You know the drill, but this is serious now.

1. Don't use your social security number as a method for verifying who you are.
2. Don't fall for any of these fraudulent computer service outfits.  In fact, if you want to, play them along and act stupid to waste their time.  You can even let them on a computer you don't care to restore and keep them going as long as you can. 
3. Long passwords.  Don't use the same password twice.  Change your passwords.
4. Always use https:  as your internet site prefix.  That sets a secure connection.
5. Don't save any important documents "on line" without encrypting them.  I can tell you how if you call.
6. Stay away from suspicious sites and don't download any free software without validating that the site is trustworthy.
7. PDF files still contain poison pills.  So do Flash files (Video streaming files).  It is getting to the point where other technology is being used to display video.  You could turn off the Flash plugin and see if it is really used that much for what you do.