Microsoft Called my Mom?

[killergamer]

"Microsoft" called my mother today telling her she had a horrible virus on her computer, and that tomorrow she needed to be in front of her computer to turn it on and help them...I think its a huge scam and told her that, so what do you think we should do?

[OvRiDe]

Definitely some sort of scam or prank.

[AmEv]

Fire up a Linux VM in fullscreen!

Use pseudonyms!
Eaton Brock Lee, for example.

Obviously fake credit card numbers!

1337 1337 1337 1337, or 1234 5678 9012 3456!

[pcclan]

yea it fake i had the same people phone my grandma and she gave them her credit card. if you get on the phone with them ask where they got the information from. and if they refuse to tell them not to phone. >.< and report it to the local cops.

[CrazyTeaPot]

That is without a doubt a scam. It would be a giant invasion of privacy just to know that there was a virus on her computer, because how else would they know if they didn't take a look through her computer? Now obviously this scam organization hasn't done that, as it's nearly impossible with the level of Encryption that Windows has, but it's a safe assumption that whoever they call is likely to have a virus, given that viruses are quite common. Just keep calling people until you find someone. It would be pretty easy, actually. And there are a lot of computer illiterate people in the world to prey upon...

If she has any doubts, point her to this thread I suppose?

If there's something you want to do about it, I suppose you could report it. To where I'm not sure...

Edit: Also, Microsoft have their very own Anti-Virus software, called Microsoft Security Essentials. All you have to do is install it from their site. Why would they need you to do anything else at all? And why would they care anyways? It would cost a metric ton of cash to put every windows user under "virus surveillance", let alone it's legality issues. Yeah. This would never happen in a million years. 100% scam. No question or shadow of a doubt.

[pcclan]

the way the get in is though some sort rdp connection i think though port 80 or 443

[luciusad2004]

Funny, I've had a few employees at the company I work for call in saying they have received calls from "IT" telling them that there computer was broken and that they would need to be in front of it so that "IT" could remote in and repair it.

Actually kind of terrifying, knowing the people I talk to. We DO frequently remote in for fixes. We also ask for usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information that we probably shouldn't need to so our field reps are likely to go along with something like this. It is, however, rare that we would reach out to them preemptively (but not unheard of.)

Luckily the few employees i talked to saw through the scam and actually called us instead of just going with what this faux "IT guy" was telling them. God knows how much sensitive info they could gleam off these machines if they got on to the corporate network.

Hopefully this scam doesn't grow. It seems like an awful lot of effort to have live people calling people to infect machines.

[pcclan]

tbh i think it is growing >.< from what i see it has been moving alot

[BuzzKillington]

Every news station should plug in 5 seconds worth of warnings about popular scams going around. It'd be better than even one person falling for it.

[killergamer]

I knew it was a scam, I'm just going to tell the person that they need to stop calling her...I'm glad she knew not to give her any thing!

[Drum Thumper]

It's a scam. I pray for the day these asshats call me.

[Konrad]

Digital telecomm makes the old "phone phreaks" stuff a little less threatening. The literature makes it obvious that phone lines are anything but secure, but at least these days you have to be able to defeat some fairly serious digital encryption to make the call display show your IT Dept number. So fewer miscreants will be able to pull this old trick off with new tech (which means the other 99% useless miscreants are out of this game), but those who are left will probably be using their tech savvy time to score big money, they'll be working for Symantec or the Russian Mafia.

[luciusad2004]

Digital telecomm makes the old "phone phreaks" stuff a little less threatening. The literature makes it obvious that phone lines are anything but secure, but at least these days you have to be able to defeat some fairly serious digital encryption to make the call display show your IT Dept number. So fewer miscreants will be able to pull this old trick off with new tech (which means the other 99% useless miscreants are out of this game), but those who are left will probably be using their tech savvy time to score big money, they'll be working for Symantec or the Russian Mafia.

Couldn't you just pick up one of those apps for android or jailbroken iPhones that spoof the phone number? Either way I couldn't see it being that advanced. I imagine they don't have specific targets but just call from a regular phone number to random targets or go through the phone book.

[AmEv]

Gmail Voice. Fake (or hidden) phone number!

[Bopher]

Definant scam. Had a lady call in to technical support complaining that her virus software was still saying she had issues. Come to find out samething as here, "Microsoft" called and said her system was infected. She gave them information but cancelled it later when she had doubts about it being legit. Once they had access to the one computer they got into her husbands computer via the network and started doing stuff to his system as well. Unfortunately it turned into having to pitch our Computer fix it service. When she turned it down had to advsie to take both systems down to the local computer shop to be wiped and restored. She was not a happy camper.

[Konrad]

Replace all instances of "Microsoft" with "Geek Squad" and read email aloud to illustrate obvious nature of the spam hoax.

[Twigsoffury]

lol


"B@tch i know every process, thread and handle running on this computer"

[xr4man]

hahahahaa

[Cale_Hagan]

It's a scam. I pray for the day these asshats call me.

hey. they called here yesterday. to say the very least, i wasted a TON of their time. they said they were microsoft, blocked caller id. heavy asian accent. you wouldn't believe how many times i got here to repeat the same sentence because "i can't understand you". completely enjoyed wasting her time. if i was thinkin, i woulda recorded it and posted here. =/ live and learn. she was telling me my computer was reporting errors, and it's probably a virus... so she could walk me through getting it all taken care of. she probably told me a total of 5 sentences, then i asked a ton of questions... "how did this happen" -short explanation... along with like 6 or 7 other questions... i ahd her repeat herself like 2-3 times on each... LMFAO. then, as i knew by the tone of her voice, she was frustrated.... and trying to move on to her "fix".
the way to deal with these telescammers, is make it sound like you believe them, and want to know more... ask a ton of questions, while not giving them any power in the direction of the conversation.

when it was obvious she was trying to force forward with the troubleshooting, after wasting a good 8 minutes, i said, hold on. 1 last question.... usually when corporations like microsoft call, they don't have a blocker ID. why is yours blocked? *CLICK*

LMFAO :banana: i win. :whistler:

[luciusad2004]

You know, Im curious if they ever end up calling any Linux Users and if so how well that goes. The level of trolling that would probably happen in that situation must be off the charts.

[xr4man]

oh God, that would be funny as hell.

[AmEv]

You know, Im curious if they ever end up calling any Linux Users and if so how well that goes. The level of trolling that would probably happen in that situation must be off the charts.



Fire up a Linux VM in fullscreen!



Exactly why I was suggesting it to him.

[luciusad2004]

Exactly why I was suggesting it to him.

*Facepalm*
Totally missed that you had already touched on that subject.

[AmEv]

Haha.

Seriously though, if these idiots scammers ever call me, I'm ready.