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Has anyone seen this before? My dad got targeted by this scam, thankfully he didn’t fall for it, but holy cow! These people are gutsy. They pose as Microsoft and ask for full access to your computer:

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These scam artists just infuriate me!! Because the people who fall for them are usually people like my dad. Is there anything we can do about these people? Maybe I should report it to Microsoft?

Thanks for your help SpiceHeads!

Carla

40 Spice ups
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I had something similar with a call at work, so I decided to have fun with the guy. To cut a long story short, when the guy was really irritating me with his evasive answers and demanding I do something because his boss said so, I invited him to tell his boss to have sexual relations with himself and hung up.

2 Spice ups
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This has been going on for quite some time. Some community users have had a bit 'o fun with these folks. :slight_smile:

13 Spice ups
4

I have had many of my users tell me about this happening to them at home. It’s been going on for years. Thankfully, no one that I know has fallen for it.

5

RAM., didn’t you have a run in with these clowns awhile back?

@doctor-who

3 Spice ups
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Yeah, I just helped a guy clean up from answering one of those calls. Found a ton of malware (which he probably had from before), but didn’t expect to find a keylogger. Lesson learned for him.

1 Spice up
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Reporting them to Microsoft won’t do any good. They’re not based in the US and generally operate out of highly mobile call centers from India or Pakistan.

Your best course of action is to simply tell everyone you know that Microsoft does not monitor computers at all, ever, and anyone calling out of the blue claiming to have detected a problem with a personal computer is flatly lying. People receiving such calls should simply state, “I am not interested in your services,” and hang up. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should a random caller be granted permission to access a computer or be given any sort of payment information.

Receiving these calls does NOT mean you’ve been “hacked”. Phone numbers are bought and sold with a frequency that surprises many, and a huge number of people think nothing at all about giving their email address and phone number to any website that asks for it.

3 Spice ups
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Sadly, there isn’t much that can be done, but you can document at report the attempts. Sadly most are coming from areas beyond our control, i.e. across international borders, and are very close to legal, making prosecution a nightmare.

Still…

Step 1 educate those around you

Step 2 if it happens get as much info as you can about them, phone number, names, “can I call you back?” whatever and pass it along. There are several agencies and reporting services that can be used, sometimes even your phone company. Imagine if every phone company was willing to blacklist a number? No calling for you!

Step 3 Waste as much of their time as you can then they lose money.

Step 4 Let them know you are reporting them - this one is optional, but “fear” is a decent motivator so depending on how you feel the person you are “talking to” will respond it might be good to scare the crap out of them.

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Yep two parter. Wasn’t me it was my grandma

Part 1- http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/766075-sorry-grandma-your-computer-privileges-are-hereby-revoked

Part 2-  http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/766766-grandma-avenged-my-name-is-ryry-and-don-t-mess-with-this-guy-censored

Also have it on my blog as well. (readers always welcome :-D)

Part 1- goblinbyte.com - goblinbyte Resources and Information.

Part 2- goblinbyte.com - goblinbyte Resources and Information.

@doctor-who

9 Spice ups
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This happened to my sister a few years back and I found that I have taught her well. The first thing she asked was what version of Windows did she have. The guy said Windows. She asked again, he started getting rude. She then hung up.

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Maybe I should report it to Microsoft?

What could they do about it?

Education is the answer - don’t trust people without verification.

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My Uncle fell for this unfortunately some time ago. His computer was a mess. I fixed it for him. I then spent a good amount of time with him just educating him on things. I got a lot of my savvy users at work to forward me a lot of phishing emails and the like to show that to him. He recently had this type of scam call him again. He just hung up on him. They called him right back. He then said to them that “My nephew is in IT, he educated me about you (insert inappropriate language), if you call me again I am reporting you to the police” The guy hung up on him this time and didn’t call back. He then called me and told me what he did and it gave me a big smile.

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I have been called by them many times before. Last call I remember they said they were calling from Microsoft Security Center and there was an error. I told them I didn’t have a Windows PC and to my surprise he said that they support all OS’s. OSX, Linux, and Windows. I asked him if he was calling from MS why they would support OSX or Linux and he hung up on me.

I also know someone who fell for the scam. He told me someone called and said there was an error so he let them in and not only that he gave them his bank information to pay for the service. I told him to call his bank and put a hold on the money which he did. The people who scammed him kept calling him every five mins after I put his laptop in airplane mode and then did a factory restore. They did eventually give up after he told them that he had alerted the bank that it was a scam and that they wouldn’t be receiving any money.

1 Spice up
14

I tell them to stop calling me or I will have my friend in the FBI’s Cyber Crimes division track them down…

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I tell people who call me about this scam (for the last 8 months, I’ve received at least one inquiry per week) exactly what I gave above, plus:

"If you gave these people access to your computer, there’s only one way to confidently know they didn’t leave something nasty on your computer: Back up your data, completely erase the hard drive, and re-install Windows. While I can be 95% certain to catch most things, the cost of the wipe and reload is only slightly more and I can be 100% certain your system isn’t compromised when I’m done.

If you gave these people access to your computer, I also strongly recommend you notify the police of the incident. They won’t actually do anything at this point, but you’ll be glad to have filed the report if you have issues with identity theft down the road. Then change the password and security challenge questions on every single online account. Do that right now, from a computer belonging to a trusted friend or family member."

1 Spice up
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I actually had an employee at my W2 gig fall for this.

At her desk.

At work.

5 Spice ups
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You can report it here: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1

1 Spice up
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That is what I did for my Uncle’s computer is a complete re-install.

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This is nothing new. You can change Microsoft to Dell, HP, or any of the others. I know tons of people who have gotten these and a couple who were stupid enough to just let them in. I laughed and charged them extra.

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If you knew they were calling, wouldn’t it be great if you were able to get a copy of cryptolocker and rename it to “Buisness Bank Accts.doc”?

2 Spice ups