Microsoft and British police forces have teamed up to investigate tech support scams and have announced the arrest of four people.

Tech support scammers try to convince victims that they represent Microsoft or an affiliated company. The scam usually starts with a pop-up telling the victim to call “Microsoft Technical Support." Of course the phone number is not an official Microsoft support tech.

The scam works by convincing victims that their system is infected with malware. They point the victim to Windows Event Viewer where they will find “Warning” or “Error” messages.

Although these messages are harmless, an unsuspecting victim might be convinced and talked into forking over a payment for a "fix" or give the scammers access to their computer.

British police have arrested a 29-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman from Woking in Surrey as well as a 37-year-old man and 31-year-old woman from South Shields.

In the financial year 2016/17, its been reported that there were 34,504 reports of tech support scams with losses accounting for more than £20,698,859.

Source: We Live Security