Phishing Questions

[lomapaseo]

I got a panic call from an out-of town friend today with the following recount of last nights events.

He was reading his E-mail and tracking expected boarding passes for his upcomming trip. He printed one set of boarding passes OK using his new HP printer (I have no idea of his Windoz operating system or printer model).

It seems the second set of boarding passes didn't print after repeated tries (he can't remember any other details) He then decided to call HP service and ask for help using his brand new printer. So he looked up the phone number In Giggles and called.

The voices on the other end sounded like a boiler room but the person answering the phone was very helpful. He was guided to give the person access to scan his computer for the problem which they th4en promptly announced was being hacked by a person in Canada as well as Mexico. They then set a flag on the computer desktop that offered a price of $150 for a one time fix or $300 for a years worth of protection.

That's when he called me.

My initial response was that he no longer has control of his computer having given it away to a stranger and as such disconect from the internet and take the computer to a shop ASAP for a bonafide service.

Maybe I'm over reacting but I suspect that searching on Giggles for a HP service center should be done more carefully and not just to call the first number that sounds right.

Any other thoughts to pass on ?

[mixture]

My initial response was that he no longer has control of his computer having given it away to a stranger and as such disconect from the internet and take the computer to a shop ASAP for a bonafide service.

My response would be to get that thing off the internet and reformatted and re-installed from scratch ASAP.

Maybe I'm over reacting but I suspect that searching on Giggles for a HP service center should be done more carefully and not just to call the first number that sounds right.

Its to do with Google's search algorithm prioritising local and more recent results as they think that will generally be more relevant for you.

Moral of the story is that if you're looking to get a piece of kit fixed, your first stop should be either the manufacturer or the company that sold it to you (depending on how old said kit is). I believe details of authorised service providers can be found on the HP website, for example.

[BOAC]

Off the internet is primary. What 'tools' does he have on his machine? If he has only a smitfraud infection he might get a friend to download this (http://www.majorgeeks.com/SmitFraudFix_d5360.html) and put it on a stick for him. It may be enough if that is all he has, but the bad news for your friend is that you cannot be sure what has been planted on the machine in the earlier process. To thoroughly clean the machine without an internet connection will be very tedious!

A lesson to be VERY careful taking phone numbers for 'support' from Google without verification.

[Milo Minderbinder]

FWIW, I've been asked many times to tidy up after this kind of problem, and not once (in a case where the customer made the initial contact like this) have I ever seen any significant malware on the machine. The odd toolbar, or junk "security" software yes, but never real malware. However I have seen it from those bastard scammers who cold call you.....

The advice given is correct - get it off the net, get it checked out and preferably reloaded. However I would suggest the probability of a problem is lower than you suspect. However the possibility is still there.

As for the remote control software, I've yet to see any of these remote repair guys install anything to worry about - in every case the software has been passive, not active, requiring action by the user before the call centre makes a connection. I really doubt if its set up to be malicious. However.......I could be wrong