Windows Technical Support Scam - they're still at it.
Hal Albach
Posts: 747
This afternoon I had a rather bizarre phone call, Caller ID said it was from New York. Sounded more like New Dehli. A woman with such a heavy Indian accent I had a lot of difficulty understanding her. Claimed she was from Windows Technical Support and was calling me to tell me I have major problems with my computer and that very soon most of my applications would stop working. She wanted me to look up some log files on my PC to illustrate how badly my computer has been infected with virulent malware. Her English was so horrible I could not get the complete name of the file she wanted me to look at. She also tried to talk me into letting her access my computer so that she could "fix" my problems. Red flags have been popping up like crazy throughout the phone call, that last request turned everything red! I simply hung up. She called back and said we had lost the connection. I told her "No, it wasn't lost, I hung up." Then I hung up again.
I then Googled "Windows Scam" and learned that since early 2014 Microsoft has been fighting these clowns in court and has won several large judgements, but it hasn't slowed them down. Also learned the log files they want you to look at are a log of very minor errors that Windows encounters such as an application not responding to a request because it was busy elsewhere. In other words, routine housekeeping stuff. If you let them into your system they usually plant additional malware to steal important files.
My only regret is that I broke the connection with her too early, I could have had some real fun with that one.
I then Googled "Windows Scam" and learned that since early 2014 Microsoft has been fighting these clowns in court and has won several large judgements, but it hasn't slowed them down. Also learned the log files they want you to look at are a log of very minor errors that Windows encounters such as an application not responding to a request because it was busy elsewhere. In other words, routine housekeeping stuff. If you let them into your system they usually plant additional malware to steal important files.
My only regret is that I broke the connection with her too early, I could have had some real fun with that one.
Comments
No? Hmmmm, I wonder what they are doing with the money??
He tried to get me to start Teamviewer so that he could take control and 'fix my computer'...
First he tried to have me press 'Windows + some other key', presumably to open Internet Explorer.
Which I couldn't because it's an old keyboard without that key. Then he tried to get me to start IE other ways.
Until I finally told him that 'I don't have IE, can I use Netscape instead?'
He directed me to teamviewer.com (nifty tool really. We even use it at the office to support users who's trying to use our Remote Office solution), and I dropped the final clue 'I'm getting a not supported message. Do you have another tool that works with OS/2?'...
Wasted a half hour of his time...
I actually have an OS/2 machine at home, and it has an old-style keyboard, too.
But I'm not daft enough to connect it to the internet.
Remember, the longer you keep the call going, the less time they have to scam innocent people.
Nice one! I owe you something then, because it beats mine all hollow, I told him I run Linux here exclusively.
If enough people mention Linux, they'll most likely make a new sheet that accounts for that, so don't mention it.
Therefore, be vague, clumsy and helpless, then throw them a proper surprise at the end.
Do they just call phone number at random on the off chance that the target has a Windows computer, is near by it and preferably is using it on line?
Have you ever had such a call when offline and away from your machine? When your machines are turned off?
Because I could speculate that they have somehow found an on line computer and then somehow found the phone number that belongs to it's user.
All very disturbing.
Yes. It's pretty unsophisticated. They just ask you to go to your computer and turn it on. Wouldn't fool me. Must dash though, I just got an email telling me I won a lottery I didn't enter...
The first one I saw came to a friend of mine in England by post, we did not all have internet back then. It was written on, heavy, high quality paper with a very nice official official looking Nigerian government letter heading. Now, this threw my friend for a second because he had been in Nigeria working for an oil company.
For a while that letter was framed and hanging in his bathroom, next to a letter from Winston Churchill to his father, which was genuine.
I didn't mention that I was using linux. The idiot on the phone discovered that on his own when I let him login remotely. Had him going for 20-30 minutes though.
It can also be a lot of fun. I was watching tv at the time and only half paying attention to what the idiot had to say.
Bean
I explain to them that Windows technical support is hard to get a hold of and they have
no time to call me. Before I finish the above sentence they hang up.
And yes, plenty of other scams are alive and well. http://www.benzinga.com/news/15/05/5483640/report-mattel-cfo-nearly-duped-out-of-3-2-million-in-china
Sometimes when I call back the number it is an invalid number, sometimes I get an instant recording same as the one I get when they call or I get the call-center Indian guy who thinks I am the same person they always ask for (Dawn), although when they speak it it sounds like "Don" to me. The text messages I get always say, "Dawn" though and also want me to click on an obfuscated link to pick up my $1,000.00 payday loan.
-Tof