Skype users attacked by ONLINE HELP scam call

Like the rest of the world, Pocket-lint has been targeted by email scams, and telephone call and text message spam. And, like a vast majority of you, we don't particularly want to give away our banking details, haven't been in accident lately, nor want our penises enlarged. However, until five minutes ago, we had never been attacked through Skype.

That has changed with an out-of-the-blue voice call we have just received from a user calling himself "ONLINE HELP", who, upon answering, wants us to visit a website that's positively smothered in malware.

The automated voice message is pretty alarming: "To activate computer protection, go to www.hosog.com. Failure to do so may result in severe computer malfunction," it says.

Don't, we strongly advise.

We're not the first to report that this automated spam/scam is happening. Other users have written on forums very recently that they too have been targeted, and have received random calls from the same user (full user name being drajizonlinehelp), and it begs the question as to how the spammer/scammer got users' contact details?

If you do get a call through Skype using the tag "ONLINE HELP" just don't answer it, block the user and send Skype a complaint through the "Report abuse" button. And do not, under any circumstances, visit hosog.com.

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