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Tech support scams - by phone!

AngryTechnician

By AngryTechnician
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AngryTechnician

AngryTechnician

Posted
Posted

I thought these sorts of scams had died a death years ago, but our Accountant called me this morning saying he got a phone call at home last night. Basically he got a call from someone calling "on behalf of Microsoft" warning him about something someone in his house had downloaded onto their home computer, and started trying to get him to do some diagnostics. He very quickly smelled a rat and hung up, but he noted down the caller's number (01274 900113) and when I searched online for it this morning the first hit on Bing was this:

 

Fake tech support call scam – supportonclick, systemrecure and logmein123.com

 

It seems that had he stayed on the call they would have had him use a remote support website, then tried to charge him for the privilege.

 

Seems like this one is pretty active at the moment, so may be worth warning your staff. Luckily I've just finished a training round for most of our teaching staff where I covered exactly this sort of con, but I was surprised to hear that they are still going now that most phishing is done by email.

jamin100

jamin100

Posted
Posted

Yes my parents had this also. Luckily I was there so my dad passed the phone to me.

I knew about this long ago so knew exactly what he was going to ask . . . but i played along for 10 minutes anyway.

 

It roughly went like this

 

TW*T: Hello Mr *****, we have dialed into your computer and can tell that its running slow. MS have asked us to look into it for you.

Me: Oh ok, thats good.

T: Ok, can you turn your computer on and sit infront of it.

M: Ok, done (i wasnt i was downstaires watching TV)

T: Can you click start, run and type E V E N T V W R

M: Yup done,

T: Now click on applications, Do you see any errors or warnings?

M: OMFG its full of them my computer must be well screwed?

T: Well yes Mr *** but luckily we can sort this for you. Go to this website (dodgy ip address) and download this and we'll sort it out

M: Now this is where I went ape and pretty much told him where to go and that what he just told me was a load of rubbish..

Little-Miss

Little-Miss

Posted
Posted

Ha! This reminds me. I had a call during the easter hols saying

"Oh you contacted us because your computer is running slow and you're having difffculties using the internet?"

"erm no i didnt, bye!"

sippo

sippo

Posted
Posted
i have drafted an letter to all staff and parents waring agaist this and other thigs (namly chatroulette)

 

Would it be possible to get a copy?? I'm too lazy to do my own :p

Fatmas

Fatmas

Posted
Posted
+1 Me too, well sort of. I'd write my own , but I'd be interested to know what's going in to yours.

 

+43 Could I get one also? I will pass it on to the NM. Muchos thanks will be heading your way gibbo.

Rydra

Rydra

Posted
Posted

I have written the body text for a letter myself, and am going to hand this to SMT to deal with, and possibly reword etc.

 

Contents can be found below.

 

There has been a number of incidents recently about cold-callers to business, and homes claiming to be from Microsoft, or various other large IT related companies, that report that you have a problem with your computer, such as viruses, or invalid software. They then ask you to goto a website, which will allow them to remotely control your computer.

If you receive such a call, unless you know the company, and/or the person calling as you have subscribed to paid technical support, or requested the support, please do NOT follow his instructions, and simply hang up.

Should you fall prey to any of these hoaxes, they may attempt to charge you themselves to fix it. DO NOT give them your money. Switch off your computer Immediately, and seek technical advice from someone you trust.

 

I’d also like to make you aware of a website becoming popular with young people at this time, called Chatroulette!.

This site, although stating a minimum age of 16, has some highly questionable, and unsuitable material on it, and is NOT recommended that anyone uses this site. If you have any parental controls available on your computer, it is highly recommended this site is added to the block listings.

Regards,

Network Manager

  • Thanks 3
Rydra

Rydra

Posted
Posted

Do as you wish, I wrote that in about 2 minutes without checking it.

 

An interesting point was raised about this though.... When it started, only a few thousand users, after a little while, in the 10's of thousands.... National media disgraces it, user count raises into the 100's of thousands....

AyatollahPies

AyatollahPies

Posted
Posted
Do as you wish, I wrote that in about 2 minutes without checking it.

 

An interesting point was raised about this though.... When it started, only a few thousand users, after a little while, in the 10's of thousands.... National media disgraces it, user count raises into the 100's of thousands....

 

On the flipside, it shows that there is still a need for IT experts like our goodselves, as there are still an awful lot of folk out there that do not understand the dangers of the internet.

  • 1 month later...
Martin

Martin

Posted
Posted

Well these scammers (international) called me at home earlier tonight :mad:

 

Same MO as in the (digitaltoast) YouTube video "is your computer slow", "are you having problems" followed by let me put you through to my supervisor - at which point i hung up. Five minutes later their "technical expert" called me back, only to receive a mouthful from me - but i wish that i had remembered the details of this topic 'cos i would have loved to string them along for half an hour or so ;)

 

Next time :evilgrin:

 

mb

  • 1 month later...
michael2k6

michael2k6

Posted
Posted

Just a little aside - i'm sure those it will matter to will know - but logmein123.com is a valid and genuine site. It's the corporate version of logmein, so these ridiculous people must have an account for that if they're actually remoting in using it. I'm not saying you're wrong and that the people are genuine, just that that site in particular is (to not put people here off using it for genuine purposes).

I'm sure if they were reported to logmein, they would take it very seriously.

I only say this as we use logmein123.com at work. It will prompt you to download and run an exe and then asks you to confirm remote control, advises you to close confidential stuff etc.

It bothers me greatly that people still get away with this but then i supose why wouldn't they!

 

Meh.

  • 1 month later...
Martin

Martin

Posted
Posted
Next time :evilgrin:

 

Well i just managed to waste thirty two minutes of their "technical expert"'s (who admitted that he was based in India) time :D

 

Apparently now that my Windows PC is no longer supported by Microsoft, errors and warning are sent to their Windows Service Centre in Bradford which is where they detected that my PC was running slowly and may have malware and stuff on it!

 

When i typed "eventvwr" into the run box there were "dozens" of errors - although the tech didn't know what a "dozen" was so i has to say "twenty four" instead. Also, did you know that typing "prefetch" into the run box will show you all of the malware that has been downloaded to your PC from the Internet. You can confirm this by double-clicking on any file contained therein and Windows will say that it cannot open it ;)

 

I asked him to confirm my computer name or IP address and he said that it was "secret" but kept repeating my home address (which is in the phone book).

 

Give him credit though, he hung on whilst i openly called him a lier, threatened to report him to the authorities and challenged him on his knowledge of computers - but in the end he hung up without even saying goodbye ;)

 

So next time i need to keep 'em talking for more than 32 minutes :D

 

mb

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