Weird phone call! "online pc doctor" - Only thread on these scam calls please

crazygeryy

http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/supportonclick-systemrecure-scam

check this out.sorry if its been posted already.

and the same goes for phonecalls from microsoft.they would NEVER ring anyone out of the blue like that.only if you make contact first.so beware.

keep them on the phone as long as you can thats what i did.keep asking questions but never give personal details.and finish it by asking them what their wearing and whats there favourite colour etc lol

properbo

my ma just got a call today @ 2.30 claiming to be from microsoft and that he needed to talk to someone that was actually sitting at the pc. she hasn't got a clue so she said no one was home and he said he would call back in an hour. no call as yet. can't wait to talk to the f@@ker

U_Fig

just found this thread...i've never gotten one of these calls but a friend of mine did hack one of the websites a while back after his mum kept getting calls from them there was nothing really on it it had a DB but it contained not much info...

my 2 cents on this issue is if you're stupid enough to fall for one of this you deserve to be scammed.

it's bad that it's happening but a little bit of common sense will let you avoid it..

like at this stage i could probably own africa with all the money i could have gotten from there between lottos and government bond payments

GhostInTheRuins

U_Fig wrote: »

my 2 cents on this issue is if you're stupid enough to fall for one of this you deserve to be scammed.

Lovely :rolleyes:

cornbb

Got a call from one of these fellas on Tuesday.

I said "Oh yeah? Well we'd better get that fixed!"

I put the phone down for 10 minutes and made a cup of tea while I "booted my computer", as instructed. He then asked me to look for the Start button at the bottom-left corner of my screen. I said "hmm, I don't see it there". He spend about 5 minutes repeating the same thing over and over. I told him it definitely wasn't there.

He then directed me towards my keyboard and told me to look for the "button with the four little flags" just to the right of my ctrl key. I told him I was pretty certain it wasn't there... After repeating the instruction many many times, he said "but sir, EVERY computer has one of these keys on the keyboard!" I said "well, mine doesn't! I just see a key with a little Apple logo there" (whoops, should I have mentioned sooner that I use a mac? )

Even then he didn't get it... he kept telling me to look for the key with the Windows logo. Eventually the penny dropped and he said "errrr I'll call you back..." and hung up.

I figure that 20 minutes spent wasting this fugger's time was 20 minutes well spent.

Losphel

I got a call a while back from someone claiming to be a Microsoft Support Technician and that I was a privileged customer. It was the standard look at Event Viewer, they're all viruses, your computer has been hacked and so on. I was curious to see where he was going with all this, so I played along for a bit. When he wanted to connect to my computer remotely, I just mentioned that I am a software engineer--I'm not--and that I could fix any potential problem myself. It was kind of funny when I mentioned that, because he practically yelled at me for wasting his time. Wish I were as creative as some of the other posters here are!

I think the best way to get rid of these calls is actually to waste their time, like that person who kept them on the line for 55 minutes (sorry, I have forgotten your name.) I'm pretty sure they have to meet a certain quota per day, so spending a long time dealing with someone will probably flag something in their database (just a pure guess.)

My main concern are for those who are not so computer literate (i.e. know how to send an email and surf the web but nothing more.) Accessing the Event Viewer would seem like really advanced stuff and the user could easily be panicked into falling for their scam. Seeing all the warnings and errors would further add to their panic and they would be inclined to believe the scammers.

coreb_KK

My father got a call from one of the Microsoft technicians. He didn't really fall for anything and didn't even turn on his laptop.

Where do they get peoples telephone numbers?

My father said they knew his name

jack presley

coreb_KK wrote: »

My father got a call from one of the Microsoft technicians. He didn't really fall for anything and didn't even turn on his laptop.

Where do they get peoples telephone numbers?

My father said they knew his name

Eeeny-meenie-miny-mo out of the phone book probably. Nearly everyone has computers these days so there's more than a punchers chance the name they pick out of the book has a computer.

GerardB

right, this happened to meh, just posted about it in a scam thread, heres the details:

"argh- **** sake, think i just fell for this >.>
he asked me to run a 'logmein' program, asked for my email, started remotely controlling my cursor.. soon as i saw that i disconnected logmein, deleted it, ran spyware doctor, changed my email password.... **** sake, how did i fall for that...

dont think they added anything or got any info, when they started moving the cursor i think it moved too fast for them or whatever (i dont use enhance pointer precision) and i disconnected before anything was opened... could there be any damage? feel so stupid for falling for it, i'm usually tech savvy... >< "

that was embarrassing... anyway, what should i check for??

patentseven

GerardB - if you go back and read some of the threads on this you'll get a
fair insight on what to do. Most of the folks would say reload windows from what I can gather.

Farls

GerardB wrote: »

right, this happened to meh, just posted about it in a scam thread, heres the details:

"argh- **** sake, think i just fell for this >.>
he asked me to run a 'logmein' program, asked for my email, started remotely controlling my cursor.. soon as i saw that i disconnected logmein, deleted it, ran spyware doctor, changed my email password.... **** sake, how did i fall for that...

dont think they added anything or got any info, when they started moving the cursor i think it moved too fast for them or whatever (i dont use enhance pointer precision) and i disconnected before anything was opened... could there be any damage? feel so stupid for falling for it, i'm usually tech savvy... >< "

that was embarrassing... anyway, what should i check for??

My better halfs mum and sister got caught out with this scam last week and left them to work away for a few days. After a quick 5 minute scan of their documents I had the whole families names, numbers, addresses, pps numbers and 1 bank account. Imagine what they would of found!!!

Anyway I disconnected the pc from the net and will re-install windows this weekend, its the only complete solution that you could have confidence in.

*The whole family also changed ALL passwords and bank cards etc

GerardB

would i lose any data if i reloaded the OS?

don't really think i'll bother tbh- i disconnected soon as i woke up, don't really think they were competent enough to do anything within that split-second time frame....
unless, thats what they want me to think...

Nothingbetter2d

lol he called me too.... i told him "oh really i have a problem with my windows pcs?" he said "yes i can see the error now"... i replied "thats funny cos last time i checked my pc it was running linux!"

patentseven

GerardB wrote: »

would i lose any data if i reloaded the OS?

don't really think i'll bother tbh- i disconnected soon as i woke up, don't really think they were competent enough to do anything within that split-second time frame....
unless, thats what they want me to think...

The fact that they got into your computer atall is enough reason to re-install os. Better to lose some data than your id & the shirt off your back

Peter Henderson

Received one of these phone calls last Wednesday claiming to be from the Windows security team and that there was a serious problem with my computer. I was instructed to go into the windows event viewer where I found a large number of errors and alerts (supposedly viruses etc.) There is actually nothing at all wrong with your machine and these are quite normal.

I was very suspicious from the start (how the hell would they know there was something wrong with it) and unfortunately I let them have remote access (through a site called ammyy). They installed a programme called windows care (which I've subsequently uninstalled ).

The main reason they got as far as they did was becuse they were threatening to block my IP address. When I was directed to a page asking for my credit card details alarm bells really started to ring. I pont blankly told the guy he wasn't getting my credit card details. He then asked for my debit card details which I again refused to divulge. At this point he got quite nasty and said that unless I gave them £95 he would block my IP address. I told them I was going to contact Microsoft at which point he again threatened to block my IP address in 10 minutes. I then put the phone down and severed my internet connection. My phone actually didn't work for several minutes (which again was worrying).

I subsequently contacted the real Microsoft who advised me to run a Windows update ASAP and change all my passwords.

Be warned. They are now getting very, very nasty and aggressive.

I haven't noticed any on usual activity in my bank account but I may contact and warn them just in case.

Fistycuffs

Do ye think this is a big operation or is it being run by a couple of guys ?

It seems pretty big to me.

Are the people making the calls aware that it's a massive scam or innocents duped into this ?

demanufactured

Fistycuffs wrote: »

Do ye think this is a big operation or is it being run by a couple of guys ?

It seems pretty big to me.

Are the people making the calls aware that it's a massive scam or innocents duped into this ?

lol.

Gadgetman496

demanufactured wrote: »

lol.

Very productive and helpful reply demanufactured?

Regardless of the humorous aspect to the Op's question? not everyone is a streetwise when it comes to computers as others may be. Many have been taken in by this scam, otherwise these fraudsters wouldn't still be operating.

-

patentseven

These calls seem to be originating in India. The place is awash with call centres for various International company's - computer companys included - so where's the big deal to set up a scam outfit there? I know they were targeting Australia. So, I'd say they are substantial in numbers of people involved in calling phone numbers. Look, it's been in the national press here more than once about this scam carry on, they have to be cut short at the phone call stage.

Captain Havoc

I'd say it's a couple of guys but there could be a few of these operations going. As previously said, not everyone is computer savy and if they got lucky once a day, €500 a week in India would go a long way.

ART6

If the posts on this thread are anything to go by this is a major threat that could easily be defrauding a large number of people. I would think it shouldn't be beyond the imagination to track them down wherever they are and bang them up for a long time. I wonder if anyone like Interpol are hunting them? If they're not then they should be!

cute_cow

I get at least 2 or 3 calls from these guys daily, normally say hang on, and leave the phone down for a bit and when I go back they are gone.
One was particularly nasty today asking very peronsal questions.
Numbers are mostly private, but some are coming up as 00023456789, 001111, 001100, 00441213, 00111111, 001234567890.

Am getting so fecked up with it all, I am thinking of changing my number, I have told them I don't have a PC or laptop, have told them I don't have windows. nothing gets through to this b******s.

HELP!!!!

Peter Henderson

Captain Havoc wrote: »

I'd say it's a couple of guys but there could be a few of these operations going. As previously said, not everyone is computer savy and if they got lucky once a day, €500 a week in India would go a long way.

The call centre that spoke to me appeared to have dozens of people, not just 2 guys (I could hear them in the background)

I think this whole thing is a massive operation.

jack presley

Peter Henderson wrote: »

I think this whole thing is a massive operation.

I agree, it's definitely more than 1 or 2 lads chancing their arm. The sad thing is that if they get 1 victim out of the 500 calls or so they make a day (which they no doubt do), it's probably worth their while

Moon54

Yeah, they blitzed our local area recently. We did up a post about it here;
http://www.thurles.info/2010/11/29/beware-cold-calling-by-telephone/

Knine

So this is how the phone call goes......:D

Indian Dude -Hello is that Mary?

Me - Yeah Mary here, who am I speaking to?

Indian Dude - John Smith (indian version of Joe Bloggs me thinks)

Indian Dude - Is your computer switched on?

Me - How do I do that?

Indian Dude aka John Smith proceeds to tell me how to turn on computer and what the google icon looks like

Me- hang on I can't find google, Ive got blonde hair.

Indian Dude is getting a bit irrate. Asks me to type in Logmein123.

Me- I can't find that, hang on something else has popped up, I spell out the link to this thread.

Indian Dude- Are you joking with me?

Me - No my hair is still blonde

Indian Dude- After 12 tonight your computer is going to crash out

Lukes_Mama

My nan got this call a while back, the poor woman is nearly 80. "What about my windows? Oh dont be stupid I dont have a computer" and she hung up lol

Binxy

Got a call in november about this and couldn't really understand what they guy was saying and was just on my way out, told him i didn't have time for it and hung up. Just got another call today sounded exactly the same as what the guy in november told me and I got a new laptop two weeks ago so I started questioning him about it, which he didn't seem too impressed with and told me he'd put me on to his manager who started telling me to do the same thing.
I told him there are a few laptops in my house how did they know it was this one and he said it was effecting all windows laptops and they were running a check on them all. I decided I'd go along with it to see what they were trying to do. He told me to go to run type in 'inf' and a folder opened, he told me that it should be empty asked what I saw I told him a bunch of folders, he asked how many I said about a thousand (there were 1,190) he said "eleven hundred, these are all downloaded from websites you visit and are hackers that could stop your laptop from working at any minute, but don't worry we can help you" told me to go back to the run box and type in www.logmein123 I stopped then and asked what company he said he was from and he said microsoft and asked me to continue so that one of his technicians could help me, I told him I was hanging up i couldn't trust him and wasn't going to let them have access to my laptop and put down the phone.

Seemed like a scam so i came on here to check if there was anything about it, looks like i was right

No doubt I'll get another call in a few months...:rolleyes:

kearneybobs

Just got a call there. Hasn't called in a few months now. My brother, who has been out of the country for a while and has been around when they do ring, he hadnt got a clue what to do so he handed the phone to me. I got the phone and just told him I run Linux. He hung up.

Had to warn the bro about never doing what these guys tell you to do. Microsoft will never call you up and do this kind of thing over the phone

Komplett-Tech: Ryan

Oh i'd love a call from these guys. How are these people getting your numbers? Not once in the the last 15 or so years ive had a mobile phone have i ever had a sales or scam phone call. I feel really left out