Global PC solutions scam

[kaphc]

Had a guy phone up last night from India / Pakistan claiming that my computer was running very slowly and offering to help fix it. "Oh yes?" I said politely and then proceeded to tell him that I work in IT and if my computer is running slowly then I'll sort it out myself thanks. On and on he went, asked me for my computer's CSID which I laughed at and then when he kept trying I told him I knew it was a scam and I was going to report him to the police. He still kept trying to get a CSID number out of me!

 

Reported it to the police but as I hadn't been "scammed" there was no crime so not much they can do, so I ended up reporting it to Trading Standards via a Citizens Advice form. I had the contact name, company name and a phone number etc.

 

The thing is, I had a Kryptik.AHAG trojan on my laptop last week (my own fault, I clicked on an e-mail that said "Private Message" from someone I knew). I don't think I've got it off fully yet as it freezes two different free virus scanners (AVG and ESET).

 

Now I'm wondering if the two are linked in any way. Am not using that laptop for anything other than Skyping and the kindle app and am doing all internet browsing, email, home banking etc via my PC at home. Can't help wondering if this is more than just a coincidence?

[MattHarwood]

For cleaning the nasty, I suggest downloading Emsisoft's Emergency Kit to a USB stick and booting in safe mode and scanning/cleaning with that. Or ESET's SysRescue disk should do fine too

Emsisoft Free Emergency Kit: portable malware scanner | Free removal of Viruses, Bots, Spyware, Keyloggers and Trojans

 

HTH

[X-13]

asked me for my computer's CSID

 

Your computer is secretly a fax machine?

[kaphc]

But obviously yes, it's the most important info about a computer ..... :-)

[X-13]

But obviously yes, it's the most important info about a computer ..... :-)

 

You mean the CLSID

 

These scammers try to get you to run ASSOC, then tell you that ZFSendToTarget=CLSID\{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062} is causing a problem.

 

They claim it's supposed to be unique, which it isn't, and offer to "fix it" when you hand over remote access.

 

Because it looks like gibberish to non-techs people may assume it's licence related.

 

 

Now you know... And knowing is half the battle. [G. I. Joe!]

 

 

[if you can't tell... I'm in a chop-bustin' mood today.]

Edited July 19, 2012 by X-13

[kaphc]

Chop-bust all you like, I assumed they were thick and meant CSID - certainly wasn't about to run anything on my PC but haven't come across a CLSID number before so I can see how tempting it is to be bamboozled. Yep, I'd rather know what the low-lifes out there are trying to do.

[Domino]

Chop-bust all you like, I assumed they were thick and meant CSID - certainly wasn't about to run anything on my PC but haven't come across a CLSID number before so I can see how tempting it is to be bamboozled. Yep, I'd rather know what the low-lifes out there are trying to do.

 

They're trying to get you to look at a big scary number, then pay them to 'fix' it.

 

Scammers....I hatez em

[X-13]

Chop-bust all you like

 

Will do.

 

Yep, I'd rather know what the low-lifes out there are trying to do.

 

Plus, it's useful if you're warning other people.

 

If you know what they're going to say, you can warn people about certain key-words. CLSID [CSID] would be one.

[twin--turbo]

I have my VirtualBox VM, XP machince on hand to play with these guys. The trick is to see how much of their time you can waste and how much you can wind them up

 

Rob

[CAM]

CLSID's are fun and let you create all kinds of crazy shortcuts.

 

CLSID Key List for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums