I just got a call purporting to be "from windows" though that took several repeats because of the accent. The caller tells me that my computer has been reporting to "windows" and they need me to type some things into my computer and tell them what happens.
After a while of not doing anything but asking questions and getting vague answers and requests to basically let them in to my computer, I hung up on them then contacted the FBI who know about this... but where's the announcement?
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the call originated from some help center for a company I bought something from, using their database and paid time to call people like me. After all, it's all about profits.
It's an extortion scam. The goal is to install malware on your computer that only they can unlock / remove.
There is actually a person who claims to have turned the tables on them. They reportedly used a Linux computer running a sandboxed Windows to monitor what exactly they did. Armed with the steps and an IP address he was able to break into their computer and do essentially the same thing.
Earlier this week I had a similar call. It went something like this...
Me: Hello.
(long pause)
Scumbag: Hello. (Followed by basically the same spiel reported by GoForSmoke.)
Me: I'm sorry. I can't hear you. Can you speak up.
Scumbag: (Repeated spiel.)
Me: I'm sorry. I can't hear you. Can you speak up.
(short pause while Scumbag fiddles with something)
Scumbag: Can you hear me now?
Me: No. I cannot.
(short pause while scumbag fiddles with something else)
Scumbag: Can you hear me now?
Me: No. I'm sorry. I cannot hear what you are saying.
(short pause while scumbag fiddles with yet another something)
Scumbag: Can you hear me now?
Me: No. I'm sorry. I cannot hear what you are saying.
(Clearly he was too stupid to ever figure out what was happening. At this point I just hung up.)
About twenty minutes later, Scumbag calls back.
Scumbag: Ok. I got a different headset. Can you hear me now?
Me: Wow. You actually change headsets and called back. I'm almost speechless. (At this point I called him something very offensive referring to his unbelievable lack of intelligence and hung up.)
About 30 seconds later he calls back. I didn't bother answering.
I've seen a few stories in various places. I think the last one was on BoingBoing.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the call originated from some help center for a company I bought something from, using their database and paid time to call people like me.
That is highly unlikely. I have not interacted with a help center in ... well ... let's just say a different person was president and those scumbags call me about four times a year. I suspect they are simply buying contact lists and cold calling.
Wow. I had a land line for years, and lately, I wouldn't even bother answering it when it rang. The Mrs. finally drove home the point that if I didn't answer it, and rarely used it to call out, what was the point in paying $40 a month to have it? Hard logic to counter, so we closed the account.
I would be tempted to toy with such a caller by following their instructions (from Linux or something) and downloading whatever bundle of mischief they pointed me to, but I hesitate to be a hit on their server logs that provides a known IP address to them. My router is already plenty busy with its bouncer duties just from the drive-by port scans and SSH login attempts.
It is a scam that has been used in the UK for a few years now.
They ask you to type something in and you tell them what it is.
They say you have got a virus which is serious but they can fix it for a fee.
You pay them £150, and they say they do something and then they say it is clear. They promise that the fee will cover future work.
You are then rung up every month or so and they get you to pay increasingly large amounts of money.
One woman on a consumer program is reported to have paid over £12,000.
I get about three of these calls a week. I just say I run a Mac (which I do) and they hang up.
A virus? Aw man, now I have to call the owners of all the other computers I've used in the last few years to make sure they're clean. This is gonna be awkward...
Grumpy_Mike:
You pay them £150, and they say they do something and then they say it is clear. They promise that the fee will cover future work.
You are then rung up every month or so and they get you to pay increasingly large amounts of money.
One woman on a consumer program is reported to have paid over £12,000.
That's what happens to people who don't know how to wipe and reload their systems.
Or maybe they don't even know that it's possible.
What can I say, it's the first thing I learned when I got my own system. You lose a lot of fear knowing that.
Grumpy_Mike:
It is a scam that has been used in the UK for a few years now.
They ask you to type something in and you tell them what it is.
They say you have got a virus which is serious but they can fix it for a fee.
You pay them £150, and they say they do something and then they say it is clear. They promise that the fee will cover future work.
You are then rung up every month or so and they get you to pay increasingly large amounts of money.
One woman on a consumer program is reported to have paid over £12,000.
I get about three of these calls a week. I just say I run a Mac (which I do) and they hang up.
I don't get that many. The last one was about 6 months ago. I asked them which computer they're talking about, as I own several. I then asked them what IP address it's on, which ISP I use, whether it's running XP, 7 or 8.1 and how the virus was not detected by my antivirus program. After a couple of minutes of floundering, because they didn't know the answers, they hung up.
Grumpy_Mike:
It is a scam that has been used in the UK for a few years now.
They ask you to type something in and you tell them what it is.
They say you have got a virus which is serious but they can fix it for a fee.
You pay them £150, and they say they do something and then they say it is clear. They promise that the fee will cover future work.
You are then rung up every month or so and they get you to pay increasingly large amounts of money.
One woman on a consumer program is reported to have paid over £12,000.
I get about three of these calls a week. I just say I run a Mac (which I do) and they hang up.
Yep. Typically they have you launch the windows event log, which is usually full of yellow warnings and red errors, and they tell you that the yellow and red things are all viruses. They then get you to install a remote desktop app on your PC so they can infect it for you and charge you a sum of money.
A lot of them are starting to fail because they are getting too greedy. I had a customer call me after receiving one of these calls. They wanted $400 USD. He told the guy he only paid $350 for his PC, so he'd just get a new one, and hung up.
cjdelphi:
I've always built my own machines so I'd never fall for it .
But I'd love to have some fun with a scammer over the phone, I'd feed them false information and have some fun!
I'd like to see if I could do something with an Asterisk box in my house. Either put them on hold for an indefinite period of time, forward them to a another scammer, or trap them in some kind of auto attendant thing ("Press 1 for English" * auto attendant switches to German, etc.).
It should be illegal to falsify caller ID, or illegal for telcos to allow that falsification. Without the ability to mask the incoming number it would be impossible for these phone scams to survive.
It's kind of funny how much tax money the NSA and Homeland Security suck up, that they can monitor our calls, email and internet activity yet these scammers operate freely.
Chagrin:
It should be illegal to falsify caller ID, or illegal for telcos to allow that falsification. Without the ability to mask the incoming number it would be impossible for these phone scams to survive.
Off topic, I saw your location. What's with Clive, IA? Just checked in a very crappy h/motel for $100?! If the road wasnt this icy on the MN I35, Id be home by 9.
Chagrin:
It should be illegal to falsify caller ID, or illegal for telcos to allow that falsification. Without the ability to mask the incoming number it would be impossible for these phone scams to survive.
Off topic, I saw your location. What's with Clive, IA? Just checked in a very crappy h/motel for $100?! If the road wasnt this icy on the MN I35, Id be home by 9.
I've heard that a large underground population in Des Moines has been contaminating the soil, and what little uncontaminated soil is left is populated by burrow owls. That scarcity drives up land prices and thus hotel prices.
But I can appreciate your disdain for the weather. If the roads had been better then my sister (who lives in St. Paul) would be here and I wouldn't have gotten stuck with the responsibility of a 10-page pork roast recipe to make tomorrow.
Guy calls by himself to fake tech support. Worth to see.