When someone asks to connect to your mother's PC, they're asking you.
The person who buys Guardian is usually not the person being telephoned. So Guardian puts the decision where the caller cannot reach it: with you. Every new remote connection to their PC is refused until you approve it.
Mom, Guardian just asked me to let someone onto your computer. Did you ask anyone?
A man from Microsoft is on the phone. He says I have a virus and he needs to fix it right now.
That’s a scam. Microsoft never calls like this. I refused it, so he can’t get in — just hang up.
He hung up. Thank you, honey — I nearly let him in.
Nothing got through. That’s why it asks me first.
“Don’t let anyone onto your computer” is a rule. A rule loses to a good liar.
You can have that conversation a dozen times. It still depends on her holding the line at the exact moment a confident, plausible stranger is telling her the bank account is being emptied right now.
A rule
“Don’t let anyone onto your computer.”
- It has to hold at the worst possible moment — mid-call, under pressure.
- It loses to a confident stranger saying her bank account is being emptied.
- One “yes” from her, and he’s in.
A lock · Guardian
There’s no approve button on her PC at all.
- The request comes to you, with the address and the time.
- You’re somewhere the caller has no way to reach.
- There’s nothing for him to talk her into pressing.
Her PC is linked to your account, so approval requests come to you, not to her. Nobody at that PC, or controlling it remotely, can approve a connection.
You don't need to know anything about computers to do this.
One question settles it, and the scam has no answer for it.
“Did you ask someone to connect?”
Ring her and ask. She can't check anything herself, because the only person available to check with is the one doing it to her. You can — and there's no version of this call that survives you asking, because the caller can't be on the phone with you.
That's the whole skill
If she didn't ask for it, or you can't reach her, refuse. Refusing costs you a call back. Approving wrongly can cost her savings.
You won't be asked often
A technician she actually books can be whitelisted after the first time, so a request reaching you at all means an address nobody has ever approved.
What they receive
A link, a short install, and Guardian on that PC. After it is installed the PC appears in your dashboard, and approval requests for it start coming to you.
What you get asked
An email, and the same request in your dashboard: the address asking to connect, the remote tool it is using, and the time. You choose allow once, always allow that address, or refuse. There is no app to install on your phone — you open the email, or the dashboard in a browser.
What happens if you miss it
Nothing connects. Guardian refuses by default, so an unanswered request is a refused request. The worst case is a phone call from her asking you to approve the technician she actually booked.
What you cannot see
Her screen, her messages, her documents, her passwords, her banking. You approve connections to a computer. You do not get a window into her life, and she should be told that plainly.
She could hold the account herself. For a parent, that’s the wrong way round.
If she holds her own Guardian account, she approves her own connections, by email link or in the dashboard. It’s worth being straight about why we don’t recommend that for a parent.
Both versions are better than nothing. The request reaches her by email and in the dashboard, never in the app on her PC, which only has a refuse button. But if that mailbox is signed in on the PC itself, somebody controlling that computer can open the request and wave their own session through.
But she is the one on the phone. The whole technique these callers use is getting somebody to do one more small thing — read an email, tap Allow, type four digits. Every one of those is a small thing. An approval from someone who isn't on that call is the only version of this a phone call cannot argue with.
Let someone hold their own account only when there’s nobody else to ask. For a parent, hold it yourself and be their Trusted Guardian.
The path is short.
- Start the free trial on one PC, or choose Family for up to five.
- Send the installation link to the person you want to protect.
- They install Guardian on their Windows PC.
- Link it to your account with a one-time code — give it to them, or enter it yourself.
- That’s it — as the account holder, you’re their Trusted Guardian. Every new connection to that PC comes to you first.