Microsoft Phonecall

Norant

What with myself being a learner on these here boards im not sure if this has been posted before.

My neighbour recieved a phonecall yesterday from a Indian sounding fella purporting to be phonoing from Microsoft,he explained to here that she had recently sent in an error report and that there was a major issue with her PC and that he would be happy for her to fix it whilst she was on the phone.


She agreed.....:mad:

What she described to me was that he asked her to follow some instructions,he told her that he was going to do a scan with her and that all would be be well,he explained that the scan was free and all part of the service that Microsoft offered......Oh dear!

At the end of this after she had rather stupidly followed his instructions he asked her for her bank account number,she asked what for and he told her that there would be a charge for fixing her Comp: and that charge would be $149.00,she told him to !!!!!! off...(which i was i would have done the moment i recieved the call) and yer man got very abusive to her,she hung up the phone but they just kept calling her back,time after time after time getting all the more abusive.

This is quite obviously a scam that is doing the rounds,she tells me that she did not give out the account number,but im not sure she is telling me the whole truth,im concerned for her.

Has this been mentioned on here before? i have googled it and it seems to be quite prevalent.

Thankyou all.

Darksun

There is a thread about it on the forums, it is a scam. The other thing to be worried about is what exactly he told her to do, it may have involved installing malicious software or otherwise compromising the security of the computer (in ways that many malware/AV scanners wouldn't be able to pick up!). Can she remember the exact instructions she was given?

Norant

Hello Darksun.


I will pop in and see her later and ask her exactly what was said and the instructions,she did tell me though that when she was doing what he had told her...the screen went blue and lnes of text kept scrolling and she said fast.

Do you know if there is anyway of checking if something has been installed on the comp for her,to be frank im more worried about if she actually gave out her bank details,she told me she did not but was quite vauge about it.

Thankyou.

Darksun

Norant wrote: »

Hello Darksun.


I will pop in and see her later and ask her exactly what was said and the instructions,she did tell me though that when she was doing what he had told her...the screen went blue and lnes of text kept scrolling and she said fast.

Do you know if there is anyway of checking if something has been installed on the comp for her,to be frank im more worried about if she actually gave out her bank details,she told me she did not but was quite vauge about it.

Thankyou.

Well, run a virus check and malware scan to see if that picks anything up, you can check the Add/Remove programs dialogue to check no unusual software is in there (it could be something legitimate so not picked up on virus scans, like a FTP server configured to give the scammer complete access to the hard drive), disable options such as Windows file sharing and remote support.

If she did give out any bank details, make sure she calls the bank straight away. I know it can be very embarrassing admitting you've been scammed, but doing that and taking actions to prevent loss is better than the alternative.

Norant

Hello Darksun.


I have now spoken to her,she tells me once again that no bank details were given however she does all of her banking online,aswell as other financial transactions.

I will get a message to her telling her to contact her bank and have them look out for unusual transactions.


Thankyou very much.