The Avanti Group

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Your computer is fraught with perils.

Most of us depend on this piece of equipment for multiple tasks in our lives yet know little about how it works. That makes us vulnerable to those looking to take advantage of our lack of technological sophistication.

Awareness is the best protection. So I'm passing on the experiences of readers who contacted The Pilot last month to alert us to two different computer scams that tried to make them victims.

John C. Edwards got an unsolicited call last month from someone who identified himself as working for "Windows Technical Services." The company had a report, the caller said, that Edwards was having a problem with the Microsoft Windows operating system.

"You do have a Windows machine?" the caller confirmed with Edwards.

"I should have caught on right there," Edwards, 69, told me during an interview last week.

The Virginia Beach resident had struggled with a few problems with his Microsoft security update, so he continued with the call. The supposed technician said he needed to connect remotely to Edwards' computer. Again, Edwards was skeptical but proceeded.

The distant technician began to work on some programs behind other windows open on Edwards' computer screen. "I had a whole bunch of corrupted files on my computer, and they were going to help me get rid of them," Edwards said the caller told him.

After a short time, Edwards grew wary and cut off the call. He never paid any money and believes he thwarted whatever the caller wanted to accomplish, "because they've been calling me ever since."

Edwards was a target of a likely "tech support scam," as the Federal Trade Commission calls it. Callers pose as technicians from operations that sound similar to major technology companies - Microsoft, Dell or security software makers Norton and McAfee. Once they gain access to a consumer's computer, they claim to find some kind of problem and pressure the consumer to pay anywhere from $130 to $300 to fix it, said Colleen Robbins, chief of online threat initiatives for the commission.

The commission heard the first complaints about this kind of scam in 2008, Robbins said. In October, the commission sued six companies accused of operating fraudulent tech support and has since settled a case against one individu