Those Microsoft scammers are getting nasty.

Forums › Off topic › Those Microsoft scammers are getting nasty.

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#1750742 30-Mar-2017 15:21

There are those ones who ring (in the middle of the night?!) and expect you to ring back, unbeknownst to you at ridiculous per minute call rates...

Gilco2

1556 posts

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#1750743 30-Mar-2017 15:27

I had one last week 10pm. he said Windows technical support. I told him to stop scamming people. I said Microsoft collect information but don't call people. He then yelled at me that he didn't say he was Microsoft. I said no but by saying you are Windows technical support and you say my computer is faulty you are inferring you are Microsoft as they are the ones collecting information and then they don't know which specific computer. He ended up swearing something terrible and I just hung up.

kiwifidget

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#1750746 30-Mar-2017 15:31

Well, I wont be answering anymore 023 calls.

On Vodafone's swanky new fibre service can I block numbers myself? I have their Huawei router.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

surfisup1000

5288 posts

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#1750755 30-Mar-2017 15:41

I had one start swearing and yelling at me when I interrupted and said i wasn't interested. Wasn't even rude.

I get these guys from some fx trading group have been calling me the last 3 or 4 years , probably 6 or 7 times a year.

Ideally i'd like to block all incoming international numbers but 2degrees don't seem to allow that.

DarthKermit

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#1750859 30-Mar-2017 19:33

@kiwifidget , it might be an idea for you to remove your surname from your geekzone profile.

RUKI

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#1750917 30-Mar-2017 21:48

Reply in Russian. I do. They usually hang up immediately :-) For fellow Geekzoners - can give couple of lessons in Russian folklore :-)

Sam91

620 posts

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#1750956 30-Mar-2017 22:39

I had an experience related to this a few weeks back. My mum was talking to a friend and she just happened to mention to my mum that she had some problems with her computer and someone online was helping her fix it. My mum was smart enough to see the warning signs, so she put her on to me. At this point, she had already given out her credit card details, given remote access, and agreed to a $500 (probably USD) payment. Obviously I knew it was scam, so I got her to put a hold on her credit card and disconnect her computer from the internet straight away. I thought that was that, and it would just be a matter of making sure it was safe to use her computer again. Nope, after that I didn't hear from her for several hours. Meanwhile the scammer is convincing her that they are a legitimate service, which she falls for. She was convinced they had fixed her computer and would provide support for a year, should she need it. They installed Malwarebytes and put an icon on her desktop with their contact information.

As far as I'm aware she hasn't been charged (thanks to me). At this stage (a few weeks on), she is refusing to acknowledge that it ever happened. She is refusing my offer to help make sure her computer is safe to continue to use. I believe she is continuing to use the computer despite it being vulnerable.

Scam source: She clicked on a Facebook ad by mistake, which then took her to a malicious website with a pop up telling her the computer had been infected and she needed to call the number. This particular scam went by the name of Tech Zone USA.

Similar scam featured in the video below. The scammer claims their call centre has made $800k in Australia in 1 month. I remember another video mentioning a success rate of about 30%.

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bigalow

566 posts

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#1750984 31-Mar-2017 01:22

get a 0900 number so when these proble ring you, they will have to pay

i read some where that in the uk this guy got peed off at telemarketers and scams

so he got a 0900 number and charged people 20 pounds a min

Geektastic

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#1750992 31-Mar-2017 07:06

My parents used to have two phone lines with separate numbers which of course were listed consecutively in the directory.
This meant sales calls would come on one then often almost immediately on the other.
They used to turn the handsets so the callers were talking to each other!

Rikkitic

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#1751013 31-Mar-2017 09:03

Sam91:

Scam source: She clicked on a Facebook ad by mistake, which then took her to a malicious website with a pop up telling her the computer had been infected and she needed to call the number. This particular scam went by the name of Tech Zone USA.

I have a friend who ran into this awhile ago. I don't know the name but everything else is the same. She talked to some guy who took control of her computer and then wanted to charge her to 'clean' it. At that point she finally said no and brought the computer to me. It turned out to be a simple browser hijacker and no other changes were made to her machine. I checked everything carefully. Although the guy had been granted remote access, he didn't do anything beyond the initial hijack and he didn't object when she declined his offer. Of course the browser was still locked to his site, but that was easily removed. Fortunately, there were no other after-effects.

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mudguard

2119 posts

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#1751246 31-Mar-2017 16:25

Ok so I've just a friend call me. His wife has given someone from 'Microsoft' remote access. I've told him to disconnect the laptop from wifi and start changing all their passwords.

What's next? Wipe the laptop?

DarthKermit

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#1751250 31-Mar-2017 16:32

How the hell does anyone still fall for this bovine crap? Aren't many many hundreds of news reports of this enough?

Oblivian

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#1751256 31-Mar-2017 16:54

mudguard:

Ok so I've just a friend call me. His wife has given someone from 'Microsoft' remote access. I've told him to disconnect the laptop from wifi and start changing all their passwords.

What's next? Wipe the laptop?

Depends on how far they got. Appears to be a couple of scripts the different groups follow

Some install malware, some install browser hijack. Some dont do anything but goto western union and get you to fill out a transfer form on their behalf while noting your details to leech it clean later.

mudguard

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#1751257 31-Mar-2017 16:58

DarthKermit:
How the hell does anyone still fall for this bovine crap? Aren't many many hundreds of news reports of this enough?

I don't know. English isn't her first language.

Rikkitic

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#1751262 31-Mar-2017 17:00

While the laptop is off-line, download Malwarebytes on another computer if possible, also the off-line database installer, copy to flash drive, transfer to laptop and install, run virus check. Load browser off-line to see if it has been hijacked. Try to delete evil site in history and close tab so it doesn't load again. Otherwise download another browser and install via usb and cautiously go on-line to see what happens (after backing up the drive). If things seem to work okay, you can do detailed step by step checks for anything that shouldn't be there. As reported above, when this happened to a friend of mine nothing beyond the initial hijack was changed on her computer. The scam seemed to be limited to convincing her that her computer was infected (it wasn't) and that she had to pay some money to have it 'cleaned'.

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