Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Phone calls from a secret and mysterious IT companies offering installation anti-virus and anti-spyware software
Dear All
Over the last two weeks we have been running a quite interesting discussion about the necessity of buying an extra hard drive to backup your computer data. Today I would like to raise a bit different subject - sudden and unexpected phone calls from companies which offer a service and installation their anti-virus and anti-malware software. Of course they do not do it for FREE.
During my work with home clients around the Haringay from time to time I'm told that there are some companies which are calling individual users, taking remote control of clients' computers without their permission and preparing a little presentation showing how much virus, malware and spyware are living in operating systems. They are very clever and smart guys who know what to show you to destroy your piece of mind and sense of your computer security.
If you are reacting immediately you can provide your credit and debit card details and also pay between £30-£40 for software which in most of the cases is completely useless. Once you've paid them, they do not care any more and you won't be able to find them anywhere. A perfect way of stealing your money.
What to do if you receive this kind of phonecall:
1. Ask them to provide their phone numbers, websites , names and address so it's possible to check if their company exists at all
2. Give yourself some time to think through your decision and never provide your debit or credit card details to pay for "their excellent anti-virus software". At least a day or two so the trial of time would be fullfilled.
3. Whatever you see on the screen during their presentation do not worry and feel scared as every problem with computers can be solved quite easily with extra support of your friend or computer specialist. They try to scare an unexperienced computer users so they will readily pay for security.
Please comment if you've ever come across this problem.
Tags for Forum Posts: scam, telephone scam
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DrWhams on
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This happened recently to a family member. They called, saying that they were calling from Microsoft and that they had detected errors on his computer. They offered to fix it, and directed him to download a tool so that they could access his machine. It turned out that the tool they ran that was supposedly looking for disk errors was actually searching for credit card numbers. Later that night £150was taken out of his account and he had to cancel all his credit cards and change all his passwords.
If someone calls you to tell you that you have a problem with your computer DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY PAYMENT DETAILS OR GIVE THEM ACCESS TO YOUR MACHINE. The best thing is to say that there must be a mistake as you don't own a computer.
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Permalink Reply by Marek on
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Hi Paul. I must admit that your example of stealing money by unexpirienced uisers is much stronger that what I learnt so far and it will be a warning for anybody who is reading this discussion. Those people introduced themselves to their naive clients with different funny names and many people do it as they are so scared of viruses which in reality does not happen so often as many of us think.
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Hi Gerry. I have been thinking for last year how long a single unprotected computer would survive without any anti-virus in the system. We are so scared by anti-virus manufacturers that virus can destroy our computer and steal our bank details that we cannot imagine to run our computer without any protection software. From other side when we have anti-virus we think that we are so well protected that we switch off the most important anti-virus called COMMON SENSE 2012.
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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I've had calls from these people. "Madam, there's a problem with your Windows PC" (in a stong Indian accent). Me: "Are you insane? I don't use Windows, I have a Mac" "Click". Hahaha! I don't have a Mac..
Next time I will ask them how they know this and how they've accessed and diagnosed my PC without me knowing. Should make for an interesting conversation. Until they hang up. Idiots.
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Many people after the phone call ask the same question: How did they get access to my computer without my permission? The answer is not simple but they use advanced scanners for our PC IP addresses and phone numbers. The rest is very simple and they do everything to scare an unexpirienced user. These hackers can earn very easy money if they find somebody very naive to trust them. Remember - IMPOSSIBLE to find them after and necessity to change your bank credit and debit cards. A few hundred pounds or more will not make you happy at all. The virus or PC issue is just a catch.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Annette, think how much better you would feel next time if you were able to say to these fraudsters, truthfully, that you have a Mac ;-)
I not sure there's anything new here.
Kota, Rajasthan - remember this location! refers to this scam that is aimed at the more gullible users of the DOS-Windows operating system.
Since I asked the last caller whether he was a fraudster from Kota, Rajasthan, the calls have dropped off. If they start again, I will ask them if their parents know how they earn their money and would they be proud if they knew?
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Hi Clive. Thank You very much for your addition in this conversation. Your love for Mac is very big but in this case Windows or Mac users are equally exposed to this problem and nobdy is free from this. Maybe especially Mac users which are feeling "virus free" so their protection instinct sleeps all the time. My MAC could have a virus - impossible. How surprise they are when it happen. Thanks for your warning to our HOL discussion.
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Gerry I've been using Macs for more than 20 years. Although I've not been troubled by malware and viruses, I don't believe Macs are totally immune. I understand they are targetted disproportionately little. For the last 10 years, the Mac operating system has been built on the industrial-strength UNIX foundation (mainframes; basis of the Internet and networked computing).
The point about the fraudsters based in Indian call centres is that they target those they believe are users of the DOS-Windows operating system, who in my experience, often seem to know little about their machines (I refer to the average user).
The fraudsters attempt to take advantage of the ignorance and/or gullibility. This scam is both international and has been going on for some time, so clearly it's clearly worth their while.
I believe there is at least one call centre in Kota, Rasjasthan, that employs enough staff to justify a computer auto-dialler to ring lists of numbers. Then on pick-up, on a rotation basis, feed the call to the next available fraudster when they come free. That's why sometimes you pick up the phone and there's no answer for several seconds.
Although I believe there are some Mac viruses out there, I cannot see any reason why any Mac user should fall for this particular scam.
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I believe it's only a matter of time before mac users are targetted. There have been instances of cross-platform attacks which download separate payloads for windows and mac, and so it would be really trivial to ask users to allow access via screen sharing or VNC where they would pass full control of their mac over to a third party.
There is a huge danger is of mac users thinking that they are in some way safe because they 'don't get viruses'. As the market share of the platform grows, so will the attacks.
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Paul Mac users are already targeted for some viruses (Such viruses are normally not as destructive as "Windows" viruses and are disproportionately small, though. I know how gleeful "Windows" users are when a new Mac virus is announced, but often these are nipped in the bud real quick, or are "proof of concept". On the Mac, its a relatively minor aspect).
But as far as I'm aware, Mac users are not targeted by the subject of Marek's thread. I've received many of these calls and on each occasion, these fraudsters have (wrongly) assumed that I use DOS-Windows.
Having set up and operated a "VNC" system (Apple Remote Desktop) for some time between GB and NZ, I can't agree that its "trivial", certainly not its setting up. Do bear in mind that for more than a decade, Macs have been running on a UNIX-class foundation, with UNIX-level permissions etc.
Anyone who is capable of setting up a VNC system (even including users of DOS-Windows) is likely to know enough about their machine not to fall for fraudsters in this way.
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Clive, the 'based on Unix' thing from a security point of view is an old canard. Windows has been running the same privilege separation for years now. The fact is that Windows, OS X and Unix/Linux are all subject to vulnerabilities and are the subject of regular security updates.
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In order to make standalone, cheap, personal computers in the 1970s, Apple, Microsoft and other stripped out (basically, from UNIX) all the networking capabilities - particularly security. Trust was assumed was there was only a single user for each computer.
In the 1990s, both Apple & Microsoft endeavoured to bolt on on discarded security features, with limited success, but Microsoft did better (via NT), even though it was still something of a compromise.
Apple was obliged to go back to the drawing board and chose to base their next-generation OS on a genuine UNIX-class foundation: mainly BSD UNIX. Since 2001, Mac OS X has been UNIX-class. It is truly UNIX-compliant: POSIX. According to that list, OS X does even better than Linux, another UNIX variant. The widespread DOS-Windows OS doesn't feature in the list.
All current operating systems are subject to vulnerabilities, but some more so than others. It's all grown like topsy and if we were to start afresh – as at some point in the future we probably will, - we'd have a significantly safer equivalent of current internet protocols.
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