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

mach1982

U_Fig wrote: »

Finally got a call from these today i was so happy (it's my mates house they called) i'd been waiting for ages. He's renting it and has Eircom but the phone is in the landlord's name. he let me speak to them..

He asked me to start my PC i told him it's very slow. he said ok he can wait. so i "started it" (i actually had a game of PES 12) went back with my old laptop it's my "lab rat" so to speak i try out stuff on it. he told me that i have 100's of viruses that are harmful and must be removed (i have alot of viruses on it but the are all my own viruses from my offensive security classes).

So he askes me to open up event viewer i follow his steps i know them in my mind. (i actually booted up a heavily modified backtrack 3 from my USB) he then says that he needs to remotely connect to my PC. he goes through the steps to perform in windows. since now I'm using Linux this prob won't work and i kept telling hm i 'm getting errors to waste time.

I then set up a remote connection for him to connect in backtrack. the beauty is that i have it set up to infect any computer that tries to connect to it with a key-logger, and about 25 different viruses and some rats . most of them FUD. I'd been working on a way to connect to it to avoid these in one of my security classes a while back and wasn't getting too far.

He then kept telling me about errors and about his website (it 404'd) and how my computer is better now that he can fix it.. he then offered my a subscription for him to automatically fix errors for €99 per year to which i replied "it ain't me who needs to be fixing their computer mate, Have an nice day" then hung up 90 minutes after he first called.

I now know he's based in India using Spectranet running XP professional SP3 and some more info like his background is of Cristiano Ronaldo and he has 30 desktop icons. i also got some passwords and chat logs but their all in Indian and i also know that he's gonna be reinstalling that windows soon.

Dude I like your style, your a a real Hacker .
To quote Zero Cool " You mess with best you die like all the rest "

samhail

call from 0037166106528
me: "...I am a computer engineer and i look after my dads PC, there is nothing wrong with it. Can you take my number off your list please?"
them: "...Oh you are a computer engineer... oh god"
Line goes dead.

10min later another call !

"Hi this is Brian."
Line goes dead.

Going Forward

Got a phone call from a gentleman speaking broken English claiming to be from Microsoft:D.

Anyway the number that displayed on my telephone was:

+253820308,, which coincidentally came up here:

http://www.callwiki.com/phones/view/025-382-0308

5uspect

Got in from work just now to my first ever scam call!

Kept him on the line for 16 minutes with about 4 minutes of very loud Rick Ashly after he tried to get me to hit Windows+R (on my MBP). So much fun.

My name is URL

Just got another call there now. That's about the 10th time they've contacted me. They must be running up one hell of a phone bill.

It's amazing that the Gardai are so powerless to do anything about it.

jack presley

My name is URL wrote: »

Just got another call there now. That's about the 10th time they've contacted me. They must be running up one hell of a phone bill.

It's amazing that the Gardai are so powerless to do anything about it.

They're calling over the internet so minimim cost involved. As for the Gardai getting involved, they're based in India so it'd be very difficult for them to do anything.

antocann

got a call today , guy says theirs problems with your machine , i said , must be the flux capasitor ., havent been able to time trave in a while . then he hangs up

Jimoslimos

My dad, who would be pretty computer illiterate has had a few of these calls, but even he would see through them.

For a tech illiterate guy he does play with them though, pretending to be half-deaf and shouting down the phone that he'll be delighted for them to call personally to the house tomorrow. Then winding them up by saying he'll 'pay what it takes' and 'hold on, I'll give you my cc details now' without being asked

Going Forward

Got a weird one today from a lady with an English accent number came up as +91777. Have to be honest, I didnt wait for her sales patter, charming as she was, but told her I was glad she was now returning my call, having been most annoyed at her company's service to date:D:D:D
She hung up.

thebigmc

Got the second call in about a week from an Indian number, James and Simon on the line so far, worried about my "Microsoft windows". Told him where to go...
So theres calls going out to the Limerick region today...

Paddy De Plasterer

i fell for this scam, turned on my computer, and they gasve me a niumber to put in, and he showed me all the errors, faults, etc that was on my computer and that it was almost at capacity. He then said that the charge to rectify this was nominal at 130 euros. At that stage i went no further and refused to give my credit card details, but am wondering have they access to my computer now and all my details ? How can i rectify and guard against it ?

yoyo

Paddy De Plasterer wrote: »

i fell for this scam, turned on my computer, and they gasve me a niumber to put in, and he showed me all the errors, faults, etc that was on my computer and that it was almost at capacity. He then said that the charge to rectify this was nominal at 130 euros. At that stage i went no further and refused to give my credit card details, but am wondering have they access to my computer now and all my details ? How can i rectify and guard against it ?

Uninstall the remote software they got you to install, could be called Logmein, Team viewer, Ammyy etc.

Nick

5uspect

If you only opened the event viewer, which will contain a lot of harmless error messages, and nothing else then your fine. If they got you to install something then you're going to have to get rid of it.

My dad just got done by this lot, which I was raging about, because about a year ago I emailed my mother with this scam in it's every exact detail, with the event viewer and prefetch and the lot - and she told me she wouldn't be so stupid. I had a good "told you so" today. My fella checked the laptop to see if he'd allowed them to connect remotely (my father thinks opening the event viewer allowed them to put viruses on his laptop...) but there didn't appear to be anything amiss installed on it. Apparently visa may be able to cancel the transaction. I didn't get all the details and should have looked at the laptop myself, my boyfriend didn't even check the browser history. God I'm mad at them... try to tell them something and they get insulted, then they fall for the very same and get mad cause I told them so!!

Hal Emmerich

Deleted User wrote: »

My dad just got done by this lot, which I was raging about, because about a year ago I emailed my mother with this scam in it's every exact detail, with the event viewer and prefetch and the lot - and she told me she wouldn't be so stupid. I had a good "told you so" today. My fella checked the laptop to see if he'd allowed them to connect remotely (my father thinks opening the event viewer allowed them to put viruses on his laptop...) but there didn't appear to be anything amiss installed on it. Apparently visa may be able to cancel the transaction. I didn't get all the details and should have looked at the laptop myself, my boyfriend didn't even check the browser history. God I'm mad at them... try to tell them something and they get insulted, then they fall for the very same and get mad cause I told them so!!

It'd probably be quicker to reinstall Windows than to go looking to see if it's infected with something.

Hal Emmerich

Hal Emmerich wrote: »

It'd probably be quicker to reinstall Windows than to go looking to see if it's infected with something.

If they didn't remotely access the laptop and he didn't install anything then he's grand. Sounds like they didn't need to, he fell right for the event viewer. I'll get more info on it tomorrow, was in such a rush today. Don't even know how he worked it out to be a scam, he believed it fully at the time. Must have told someone else about it.

pauline fayne

I n dublin , got a phone call this morning from the scammers , now saying they are calling from a company called E Solutions on behalf of Windows . Woman seemed quite shocked when i told her what she could do with her phone ..
If i hadn't been tired and cranky I would have had some fun stringing her along .

RichieC

if you fear a family member getting suckered by this while you're not around just disable remote access in control panel so they cant get at the computer.

infact disable it regardless. first thing i do with a new windows install. its an obvious hole for hackers.

Gyck

Got a call from the boys today. Well, my wife did, she passed the phone to me just as I was preparing some soup from stock I'd made after Christmas. As soon as I heard the first 5 seconds or so of the spheel I said I wasn't interested in being scammed. The following 10 minutes of conversation proved to be pretty interesting.

Rather than hanging up on me the person on the other end, 'Steve Austin' came right out and said yes, he was a scammer. He inquired about my technical ability, I explained that I had 15+ years in IT and had alerted all of my friends and family to be wary of calls such as these, and expected a torrent of abuse in return. Instead he then explained in a pretty light-hearted way that there were plenty of people out in the world who would fall for what he/they offered, so coming across someone who was tech savvy didn't phase him. He went on to say that he was pretty much IT illiterate but that he was working to pay his way towards his degree in college. He was based in Calcutta, and was quite polite during the conversation.

I wanted to hold him for longer but I ended the conversation as it was lunchtime and I had soup to make. Despite the frustrating nature of the call I'm looking forward to my next encounter with Steve or one of his friends in Calcutta.

And the soup turned out very well.

Joe Public

Maybe they think "scammer" is a legitimate trade to be involved in. Next time call him/her a low down thief prying on innocent people and are breaking the laws of god and man and even throw in Hindu, Islam, Muslim and Sikhism for good measure. A crime which is punishable under the law of the land and whatever god they believe in, if any. They may be getting away with it at the moment but time will tell.

Sardonicat

I haven't head from this crowd in a while. Was getting regular calls and always yelled at them. Last time they called I let him go on with his ittle speel and then said in a bewildered voice "but, I don't have a computer!" He apologised and hung up. Haven't heard from them since. Do you think my ploy worked?

teddy b123

I'm still waiting for the letter they said their legal department would send me.

nomdeboardie

I've suggested to my mother that next time she gets one of these calls she slightly muffles the handset and calls out, as if to a waiting colleague:
"OK John - you ready to set up the Interpol trace on this call?..."

whoami1

There's just been a new (to me) and disappointing development with these 'nice people'. After missing several calls from them during the day, they seem to be starting earlier.

I just received a call about 20 minutes ago, at 07:45. Like most, if not many, people, any call on our house phone before say 08:00 can only mean an emergency, and I was in a deep sleep on my last day of Christmas holidays, which was ruined by these 'nice people' (I don't need a ban, so will refrain from intemperate language here).

Anyway, the phone rang and I picked it up, there was the usual 15-20 seconds or so of static on the line and I'm shouting 'Hello, hello' into the phone, thinking that it must be a bigger and bigger family emergency, and then finally whatever-his-name-is-today starts into his spiel. I interrupted him with 'DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?' He started to reply and I interrupted again with a short response and slammed down the phone.

With my sleep ruined, I thought about this for a while and decided that it is likely that:

1. All these call-centre people must be using auto-diallers like Homer Simpson had in one episode;
2. Because of this, they are just dialling random numbers and are not targeting anyone in particular;
3. Because of this, any attempt by me to reason with them and try to explain the futility of calling me is, in itself, futile;
4. Also because of point 2, any attempt by me to go ex-directory or have my landline number changed will also be futile;

There is no point in engaging them in conversation and trying to explain that they will never, ever get any money out of me because I know about their scam, I am sufficiently IT-savvy to know that they are making it all up, and I know that my ISP/Microsoft/'Windows technical team'/whoever will never, ever, ever phone me for any reason whatsoever.

Therefore, it seems that we are entirely powerless to stop these people. It has been going on too long now to be considered 'news' and so RTE would not be interested in doing a major investigative piece on it. The papers won't investigate because they don't know who to interview and the Gardai can't help because they are outside the jurisdiction of the state.

It's a never-ending loop and a bad situation.

CONN222

Hi , I foolishly gave access to my computer via logmein and then hung up when I checked the phone number on another computer. Do I need to do anything more or can anyone advise me please

Joe Public

whoami1 wrote: »

There's just been a new (to me) and disappointing development with these 'nice people'. After missing several calls from them during the day, they seem to be starting earlier.

I just received a call about 20 minutes ago, at 07:45. Like most, if not many, people, any call on our house phone before say 08:00 can only mean an emergency, and I was in a deep sleep on my last day of Christmas holidays, which was ruined by these 'nice people' (I don't need a ban, so will refrain from intemperate language here).

Anyway, the phone rang and I picked it up, there was the usual 15-20 seconds or so of static on the line and I'm shouting 'Hello, hello' into the phone, thinking that it must be a bigger and bigger family emergency, and then finally whatever-his-name-is-today starts into his spiel. I interrupted him with 'DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?' He started to reply and I interrupted again with a short response and slammed down the phone.

With my sleep ruined, I thought about this for a while and decided that it is likely that:

1. All these call-centre people must be using auto-diallers like Homer Simpson had in one episode;
2. Because of this, they are just dialling random numbers and are not targeting anyone in particular;
3. Because of this, any attempt by me to reason with them and try to explain the futility of calling me is, in itself, futile;
4. Also because of point 2, any attempt by me to go ex-directory or have my landline number changed will also be futile;

There is no point in engaging them in conversation and trying to explain that they will never, ever get any money out of me because I know about their scam, I am sufficiently IT-savvy to know that they are making it all up, and I know that my ISP/Microsoft/'Windows technical team'/whoever will never, ever, ever phone me for any reason whatsoever.

Therefore, it seems that we are entirely powerless to stop these people. It has been going on too long now to be considered 'news' and so RTE would not be interested in doing a major investigative piece on it. The papers won't investigate because they don't know who to interview and the Gardai can't help because they are outside the jurisdiction of the state.

It's a never-ending loop and a bad situation.

Can you not contact your service provider and request that your phone line is opted out of direct marketing calls?

This is done automatically for all mobile numbers.

jack presley

Joe Public wrote: »

Can you not contact your service provider and request that your phone line is opted out of direct marketing calls?

This is done automatically for all mobile numbers.

These people are scam artists who don't care about rules or requests. Comreg has no authority over them so opting out of direct marketing calls will make no difference.

_AVALANCHE_

CONN222 wrote: »

Hi , I foolishly gave access to my computer via logmein and then hung up when I checked the phone number on another computer. Do I need to do anything more or can anyone advise me please

Go into your control panel and delete Logmein for a start.

Scan with Malwarebytes, superantispyware and whatever your Antivirus is.

Personally though, I wouldn't be happy unless I reinstalled the Operating system.

Boo_hoo

Is there any way to report these guys. I've had several phone calls now from guys saying

" we have detected up to 90! viruses in the post code of your area"

<< add indian accent and some bad english.

The last number was: 00253820308

Apparently from Djibouti, Africa

TAPlank

In an earlier post I told of how I used to keep them on line while asking them questions that were quite unrelated to the call, like what the weather was like were they were telling where I was going on my holidays and what weather I expected there, etc. Some of them stayed on line for maybe 5 to 8 minutes before hanging up. The whole idea was to waste their time AND money.
I don't know if it was effective but I have not had one of these calls for several months.
Another idea would be to break into hysterical, uncontrolled laughter when they introduced themselves and continuing until sounding breathless before hanging up. With a bit of luck they might list one as being "MAD"!

If we are going to be pestered by these *. !! ers, why not make it a fun event.