PSA - Virus phone scam

[NoBanStan]

It's been discussed on the news a few times and countless places online, but I just got off the phone with another scammer, so I wanted to tell the non-technical folks here that:

 

MICROSOFT DOES NOT CALL TO LET YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS!!!!!

 

Twice this month I've had a scammer call me to say they work for "Windows" and that they have been informed that my computer has a virus. I'm an IT guy by trade. Yeah, not falling for it.. but we'll play the game to see what they want.

 

The scammer asks you to open the eventviewer, go to your system logs, filter it so that it only shows error messages and then proceeds to tell you that every error here indicates a virus. There will always be error messages here, that's normal, don't fall for it. 

 

The scammer then requests you to go to a website, perhaps teamviewer, to have you establish a remote connection for them. If you follow these directions, you'll be handing your computer over to them. (Teamviewer is legit btw, just not in this instance).

 

The best thing you can do is simply hang up. They have your number, they know it works... don't give them a reason to continue to call it. You'll likely be unable to trace them back.

 

[Dolomite_supafly]

When I read the title it reminded me of something that happened to our treat in Afghanistan.

We had an interpreter we used and he was actually one of the best "terps" we had. We had some really crappy ones that knew phrases but could not translate anything.

We always told our terp to call us twice a day when he was not on the compound and he would call us all the time. He had several days off but during this time he did not call us once. We even tried calling him but it would go to voicemail. After about the fourth or fifth day we assumed he had been killed. Then our terp came in, was apologetic and said he was very worried about us. He said there is a phone virus and was really worried about us. I figured it was like a computer virus but he said it was a deadly virus that will kill you if your phone is infected. At this point I thought he was messing with us and gave him a "yeah right" look. He said it wax not a joke and he watched someone die at the market. The terp said someone, at the market, bought a card to recharge the minutes on his phone. The terp said after the guy recharged his phone he made a call. Then the terp stated to get visibly shaken as he began to relay what happened next. The terp said as the guy began making a call he began spewing blue stuff from his mouth then he collapsed on the ground and the guy's friend said he was dead. Then the friend said it was the phone card that killed him and not to buy the cards from that vendor because it had a virus.

We explained to the terp it was not true but it took him several weeks to feel comfortable using his phone again.

I suspect one vendor set up the charade to sell more cards than his competitor. We all got a good laugh at it.

[ironsniper1]

I work in IT aswell and have gotten the same call a couple of times and I just cursed them out and hung up on them lol


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[runco]

I have a friend who is not tech savvy but does have a computer on the internet and received one of these calls, and fell for it.  Geeze...............  She said she went to the internet site like instructed and then watched the person navigate her computer with the remote access and was more impressed someone could do that than paying attention to what they were actually doing.

 

There are some gullible people and for sure sheep.  If my father had a pc and the internet, I would very worried.  He struggles to know the difference between real medicare mail and junk mail.  He does give to some charities, and now he is on the mailing list of every charity in the United States.  He really struggles with this. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by Runco

[Volphin]

OMG this is too funny!  But I better tell my dad quick before they call him... ;)

 

I'm assuming they call on POTS?  I know a few people that still have that...

[Dustbuster]

When Microsoft does call you, understand they are fair game for anything u want to throw at them. This is the perfect time to hone your stand up comic skills, and intentionally twist metaphors into reality. It's ok to offer them goats that have carnal knowledge of being a good wife and more. The callers are friendly. Have fun. !