[SWLUG] Scam phone calls

[James Edgeworth]

On 25/04/2012 01:28, Neil Jones wrote:
> This one will amuse you, I hope.
> I as at my parents' place recently. My father has a windows machine
> which I help him with occasionally. He has a phone extension next to it.
> I was sitting there actually preparing to run a virus scan on the
> machine when the phone rang. I didn't answer of course as it would be
> for my parents who were downstairs.
>
> A matter of seconds later my mother shouts up to me "Pick up the phone".
> This wouldn't be that unusual. Someone from the family , a friend
> perhaps? But no it wasn't. It was someone with an Indian accent spouting
> technobabble about malware.
> Of course I immediately knew what it was. Some scammer trying to get
> access to my father's computer. I took over the conversation. I asked a
> few questions, which he actually had difficulty answering,  He wanted me
> to alter the Windows registry. At which point I confronted him. saying
> loudly. that I was an expert on computers and knew what he was doing and
> that he was a nasty, cheating scammer.
>
>
>
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There have been loads of these calls to my parents. They claim they work 
for "Windows" and that our computer has loads of errors being reported 
from the action centre in Windows 7.

My parents haven't fallen for it, but a friend did. Also a family member 
(who also thinks that the "send error report to Microsoft" button means 
that Microsoft themselves will personally inspect your computer.) They 
asked them to go to logmein.com where they show the action centre, and 
bring up a screen showing loads of false errors. They also install a 
"tool" which does a "detailed check" (installs goodness knows what crap) 
which causes real problems, and then ask for £230 annual subscription to 
fix it.

What was really annoying though, was trying to tell both those people 
that they were scammed. "But there WERE errors in the log they showed!" 
although if they looked closely, it was Windows complaining about 
"trivial" things, like "You have not set up a back up", or "Windows is 
set to allow automatic updates" (why that's reported in action centre I 
don't know...). In all, they didn't like the idea of being stupid enough 
to fall for a scam, and also finding out they just wasted £230 on a 
scam. I can't even say that they probably learned a lesson from that 
mistake...

They would start with "Good evening, I am calling from Windows - we have 
reports that your computer is badly infected and needs urgent attention, 
otherwise your computer is going to crash and need expensive repairs. 
You will lose your data if you do not take action NOW."

So, someone who doesn't have the first clue would be scared into 
thinking Microsoft are actively trying to support a customer in need... 
the panic of potentially "losing all data", where the average Joe's data 
backup routine goes as far as a "really should but never get round to it".

Finally, I don't think some of the people who call are aware they're 
working for a scam. Either that or they are very good actors. One swore 
blind that her company was licenced by Microsoft to call people and 
"help them". In the background, it sounded like quite an extensive call 
centre set up too.