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POLSON- Authorities frequently warn people never to give out personal information over the phone or the computer and a Polson woman recently took that lesson to heart when she received a very disturbing phone call.

A telephone scam that has been sweeping Europe has made its way to Montana and on Tuesday, Colleen Paris received a call from a telemarketer who said they needed something from her.

"There was a man on the phone was speaking very rapid, hard to understand Indian-English, who insisted that I proceed immediately to my computer. I said 'excuse me?' He said 'your computer is filled with viruses, and must be stopped immediately. We're calling from Microsoft Tech support'. He said 'we need access to your computer so we can stop this'."

The man claimed to be from Microsoft and said they were calling to fix her computer, but Colleen was suspicious.

"I knew better. So I said 'excuse me? Who are you?' He said 'we are Microsoft Tech Support, go to your computer now'. So I said 'may I have a telephone number?' So he gave me a Brooklyn New York telephone number, and I said, 'I will check that', and he said 'no, no, no, you need to go to your computer now'. I finally hung up."

Once the phone call ended Paris did some research and learned that this was a scam that meant for the recipient to use their computer to hand over all their personal information.

"Just don't talk to people that you don't know on the computer or on the phone, don't give out credit card information."

If you believe you have been contacted by a scam, or know someone who has, you can contact the Office of Consumer Protection at 800.481.6896 or visit the agency's website.