Louise Hickson answered the phone like she had thousands of times before, but this was one call she likely will never forget.

“He said you need to turn on your computer, there’s something wrong with your computer,” the Calgary resident recalled. “I said no … and then he started yelling at me.”

Panicked, Hickson hung up the phone, but the individual called back twice more. Hickson’s friend answered and demanded the caller provide the name of the company he represented. He refused and continued to make demands.

“I was freaked out,” Hickson said. “Is he around? Is he looking in my house? You don’t know,” she said.

Const. Kathy Macdonald of the police’s cyber awareness department, said similar incidents have been reported locally.

“They are very aggressive,” she said. “What they ask you to do is access a particular website and then they remotely take over your computer.”

From there, the scammers can download programs into the computer which allow them to monitor keystrokes and access personal information.

Macdonald had spoken with one local woman who fell for the scam and said it’s important that others are made aware, to avoid a similar fate.

Looking back, Hickson is relieved she didn’t give in to the caller’s demands.

“It could have been a lot worse,” she said.