Calls about an 'infection'
 

In the last few weeks I have had five calls (caller ID said INT'L) from people telling me that I have an 'infection' on my computer. The callers all had strong Indian accents and knew my name. They wanted me to turn on my computer and follow their instructions to remove the 'infection'.

Of course there's no way that I'd do this, but I'm interested to know what would have happened if I did.

Dave

A virus would have been "found" and you would be told to download a program to eradicate it, at an exorbitant price of course.

...........and possibly even 'sent' your own special virus too! A well-known scam but no-one is sure where the name and numbers are being leached.

Seems to be doing the rounds, had calls recently from a number of peeps whose machines I fettle, appears to be mainly targetting women..

A few minutes ago I received a call from Global Computer Maintenance. Apparently these people have been receiving lots of messages from my "Windows" computer saying that it is infected with spyware etc. By running "eventvwr" and "temp_spyware" (you have to click continue to get to the temp. files) you'll be shown lots of "nasty" problems. Having nothing to do for a few minutes, I was able to waste just over 17 minutes of the slippery shyte's time before I had to swear at him with my very best invective and racist abuse. Anyway, the site they wanted me to visit was www.logmein123.com, a site hosted by INTERNAP a US based . How about bombing these guys with emails?

Oh - and the git rang me back a few minutes later to swear back at me. Unfortunately, he didn't leave his number or an address.

PM

Airclues

They would have planted a backdoor trojan/rootkit to enable them to return at a later date and/or make your computer part of a zombie network.

Piltdown Man

Only if you wish to find yourself without an internet connection. ISPs quite rightly take a dim view of "email bombing" and will cut you off, no questions asked.... it is classified as a form of DoS attack.

Similar thread a few months ago:

http://www.pprune.org/computer-inter...eard-them.html

SD

Having read the other thread I remembered that the first call (about five weeks ago) was after I had sent an error report to Microsoft. The caller knew about that report. I've had four calls since. In todays call the lady had such a strong Indian accent that it was difficult to understand her.

How do these people get information about an error report from Microsoft?

Dave

(9 days until the PC goes to the dump (after the anglegrinder has eaten the HD) and I become a MacMan).

They don't. These are cold calls and rely on suckers to bite, so to speak. But I have a very straight forward way of dealing any calls from India. Firstly, if they are legitimate calls initiated by a UK company I immediately cancel any and every account I have with that company. I make it known that I am cancelling my account because they use offshore call centres. But if they are cold calls and I have time to spare, I'll see how long I or my children (6, 10 & 12) can keep them on the line. It's better than the Playstation and you can have a bit of a giggle. Feckers the lot of them. And my ISP will not cut me off unless he wants a real fight.

PM

This is the best way I've ever heard for dealing with such calls. :E (It's sound only)

Lepak.TV - The Greatest Prank Call Ever (mustwatch)

There is a similar scam running in Oz, with the caller supposedly being from Microstuffed

No, the first called definately knew that I'd sent an error report to Microsoft and refered to it several times. I tried to get rid of him by saying that I have a Mac (my laptop is a MacBook) but he said that the error report was sent from a PC with Windows.

I asked him where he was phoning from and he said 'Salt Lake City'. I assumed, at the time that he was phoning from the US but I've since discovered that Salt Lake City is an area of Kolkata.

Dave

Airclues,

Can you check the contents of your hosts file?

windows\system32\drivers\etc

I wonder if error reporting has been hijacked from the correct MS address to something nefarious.

SD

SD - he has a Mac (thank god - just this once)

MB - Laptop is a MAC - AC was trying a 'ruse' -SD - there has been an air of suspicion about M$ and the 'security' of customer info for some time - possibly no 'diversion' required?

My Mum got caught by one of these type of scammers. He phoned up saying she'd been having trouble with her internet (which she had) and talked her through enabling remote access. He then installed a program on her machine.

She then sudddenly panicked, uninstalled the program, and ran a full scan with Norton. Is there anything else you guys would recommend she do, short of chucking out the PC?

The Yak knows how to handle these situations. :E

YP - that was stunning - a classic. Thanks for the link.

Pike - the usual advice - download Malwarebytes (MBAM) from a reliable source like CNET, allow it to update and then run a full scan. It will tell your mum if her machine has a problem.

Airclue - did they have specific information about the report or was it a case of them saying 'You've sent an error report to Microsoft' and you said 'Yes, how did you know?'

It's a common trick done by psychics - saying 'has someone lost a loved one recently' knowing that there is a very good chance that someone in the audience has, and they then think it's amazing the psychic knew about it.

Thanks BOAC