OT: Help with internet scam/identity theft

[oliver1850]

Long story but it seems that I fell into some sort of scam after getting a warning page from "Windows Defender" (or not?) after clicking on what I thought was the link to a major USA based retailer's site. A phone number for support that appeared to be from Microsoft showed on the window but I was leery and searched for MS support on the phone and came up with another number. Let the person at that number prompt me through several procedures but when it got to the point where he wanted me to enter my bank name in the browser I decided that I had stumbled onto another scammer.

My internet access is all through the cell phone, there is no other service where I live other than satellite. Since the issue, I have switched phones but not the service/phone number. I'm using my laptop to post this and haven't connected the PC that I was using when the problem originated.

How can I contact Microsoft and be sure it's a legitimate connection? If I am able to contact them will they be able to clear my PC of problems or should I scrap it and buy a new one?