Computer Support Scams

[Lily de Cuir]

Hello Everyone,

A word of warning re telephone support for computer 'problems'.

Don't know if this just a problem in Australia, but I've had about 10 of these calls in the last month.

A foreign voice tells you they are from Windows Support Centre and you have dangerous viruses on your computer, and of course 'they are there to help'. (Yeah, sure.) I'm sure most of here would not fall for this scam, but you may have older relatives who may panic and give their credit card details to solve the problem.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1200200

Usually I regard it as a bit of light entertainment when they call and lead them on, then eventually ask for their phone number or their supervisor. They then hang up.

But the best answer came from a client of mine, after being pestered 3 times in a week, after being told she had multiple beasties copulating in her computer, she simply told them, 'um, I don't own a computer'. That shut them up quick smart, lol...

Cheers,
Lily

PS: You have to read that link, some funny buggers on there. (All Ozzies I think). One answer is to say that, 'actually your partner has a virus and you need to go to the doctor immediately'...lol

[Healthy Skeptic]

Other responses can be :
Sorry I think you may have the wrong number, This is.......'The Police Fraud Squad'..or...'The Ombudsman's Office'...or...'ASIO Headquarters'...
..or even....'The Gentle Touch Massage Parlour'......the list is endless!!

[One]

Posted by Lily de Cuir (here)
Hello Everyone,
Don't know if this just a problem in Australia, but I've had about 10 of these calls in the last month.

It is happening in the uk as well. I was phoned and I heard of somebody else also.

Asked if my computer beeped when it was started up. No it barks like a dog? No doubt a beeping noise would have indicated a problem that needed my logon credentials.

[aranuk]

Last year about a week after I bought a new laptop my wife got one of these calls from India. We did have lots of problems at that time and my wife was asked to press the f6 button if I remember correctly and the person at the other end had full control of my laptop. I panicked because I had my online banking passwords in a file. I phoned my bank to cancel all my account cards. I gave them my credit card details knowing that pay pal would ask me for passwords which didn't work. In the end I lost £189 but managed to salvage my bank accounts. It was very scary. Please don't question me further as it would not be wise for me to divulge the reasons I co-operated.

Stan

[Lord Sidious]

Posted by Healthy Skeptic (here)
Other responses can be :
Sorry I think you may have the wrong number, This is.......'The Police Fraud Squad'..or...'The Ombudsman's Office'...or...'ASIO Headquarters'...
..or even....'The Gentle Touch Massage Parlour'......the list is endless!!

Good afternoon, big balls, small balls, all balls bearing company, who did you wish to speak with?

[Gaia]

I wonder where this scam is originating from ? I received calls for some months ago...couldn't understand a single word the guy or gal was trying to say in english. Asked for the supervisor because i was 'Interested', they hung up. Minutes later, got the same caller asking me the same questions. The entire scenario re-played itself out. Too bad for them they weren't smart enough to hide the number they were calling from...Chevy Chase must have been in charge of the operation, cause it was a mess and easy to spot. Bell Canada Sympatico security department took care of the rest.

[bitworm]

Posted by One (here)

Posted by Lily de Cuir (here)
Hello Everyone,
Don't know if this just a problem in Australia, but I've had about 10 of these calls in the last month.

It is happening in the uk as well. I was phoned and I heard of somebody else also.

Asked if my computer beeped when it was started up. No it barks like a dog? No doubt a beeping noise would have indicated a problem that needed my logon credentials.

Most everyone's desktop will beep on startup- when the mainboard receives the signal to start, it runs some basic tests on various components; one beep generally means 'all OK' and it gets ready to boot up. So 9/10 times they would guess correctly if they asked about a beep on a desktop.

They operate on the premise that even a broken clock is right twice a day; they speak with authority (as long as they stay on script) and ask you questions that end with "right?" Tell them something like, "no, I want the dangerous malicious malware files on my computer, I like to send them to my friends" and they break from their script.

It seems that they are having problems using logmein and teamview because people in the whirlpool thread (link in OP) have been keeping them on long enough to get the 6-digit or 9-digit code that ties them to their logmein or teamview account, then passing the info along to logmein/teamview (neither are very happy about these people using their service for this scam). There are a couple other remote desktop services they use though, including Windows built-in remote desktop service (Remote Assistance).

They get you to open certain directories and try to tell you that the files in there are malicious malware files that will very soon crash your computer. Usually they are temp files that are safe to delete. They also get you to open Event Viewer and any warnings and errors in there, they claim it is caused by malicious malware, without even knowing what the errors are about. They will also say if you click on one of these to find out more about the error, it will launch a trojan into your system and your machine will explode.

Someone will go in there and run Task Manager because if you've never seen it before, it looks cool, then they will delete your temp files and run built in tools like disk cleanup. For this, they try to charge you an exorbitant amount. They sometimes will put a little program on there that will make a popup window at random intervals and says things like --- removed 3 malicious malware files, so it looks like it is some kind of AV program, but really doesn't do much else.

If you know what you are doing, you can set up a machine for them to log in to.
Set the desktop background to something like NSA logo. If they are dumb enough to continue (or their remote desktop doesn't display your wallpaper):

Take all the icons off the desktop and make the start menu show a bunch of nonsense when they try to use the windows key. Grey out all the options in the task manager and watch them waste 30-45 minutes trying to make sense of it. When they finally give up, start raising hell about how they messed up your computer and demand they put it back the way it was.

[Bryn ap Gwilym]

Ie, I had the same call from a woman with an Indian accent. She soon got confused & upset when I refused to do what she wanted because I do not use the govt controlled operating system called windows for I am a GNU.

Free & safe
Ubuntu. the operating system for the truly "awake"

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U0JH0ZzjefE

[Inversion]

For the last two days I got a pop-up alert Windows Firewall error code: 2V7HGTVB while I was on Dailymail.com. I looked it up and it's a scam.

link

The “Error Code 2V7HGTVB” fake alert is a scam that pretends to be from Microsoft or Apple to trick you into thinking that your computer has crashed or that a virus has been detected. It does this to try and scare you into calling one of the listed numbers to receive support.
If you call these phone numbers, scammers will ask you to install a program that gives them remote access to your computer. Using remote access, these experienced scammers rely on confidence tricks typically involving utilities built into Windows (eg. Event Viewer) to gain your trust and trick you into paying for “support” services or even steal credit card account information.

The “Error Code 2V7HGTVB” tech support scam will put your browser on full-screen mode and display pop-up messages that won’t go away, essentially locking your browser. If this happens, you can use the “Task Manager” (for Windows) or “Force Quit” (for macOS) to close your browser and stop this pop-up.

[onawah]

One of my favorite sources of online entertainment is Kitboga, a guy who has a youtube channel and regularly posts videos of him wasting scammers' time in the funniest and most absurd ways imaginable.
He pretends to be lots of different characters with different accents, uses different visuals and sometimes disguises, and occasionally has guests who join in the fun.
He is funnier and more imaginative than many professional internet comics, and is doing a wonderful service at the same time, without stooping to the level of the scammers, as many scambusters unfortunately do.
He started partnering recently with a service called Kracken, which is helping him to take the service several steps farther by erasing the scammer's files, taking down their websites, identifying where they are calling from, etc.
I think this is my favorite one so far:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CEVEXTGL68Y

A quick sample:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zo2-FYR858M