Windows scam or worse?

chookmom

I had a phone call today. The caller told me they were calling from Windows and their records showed that there was cause for concern that my computer was infected with malware that an ordinary virus protection would not detect.
I was dubious andI didn't really have time but she told me it was very important and they could show me how to deal with it. Got me to turn on my computer and press the windows symbol and R then enter 'eventvw' and then look at the sysytems and application log for warnings or errors. These were numerous.
She then said she would put me on to a collegue who would tell me what to do next. I asked her at this point if she was trying to sell me something but she strenuously denied this and said they were part of the companies help and customer services.
The next person got me to download something called 'Ammy' took control of my computer to show me there were over 3,000 of these and that I hadn't renewed my guarantee for Windows.
He could fix it all for a one off fee of £85 that would cover me for a year.
I turned him down and complained about them lying and wasting my time but now I'm really worried that I let him take control of my computer. I have since deleted the Ammyy program.
Was this just Windows trying to make some money or something more sinister do you think?
Sorry for long post

jayme1

hate to say it but you've been had by this scam Microsoft would NEVER call you for a problem on your computer, you will want to uninstall and system restore your computer to a time before you have installed the program.

to system restore click start and type 'system restore'

after that you can download malwarebytes and do a precautionary virus scan along with doing a scan with your virus scanner you have installed.

Esqui

Microsoft do not call customers to sell them security programs. Why would they, when they offer Microsoft Security Essentials for free?

If you have let them into your computer, it's entirely possible that things have been compromised. While you may have seen them showing you 'errors' (which happen all the time), behind the scenes, they could have been installing trojans on your computer to take details from you, or keyloggers which will show them your passwords.

I would follow the instructions at the top of this section for removing viruses and so forth.

And if you're feeling silly, thank god you didn't pay for anything! I spoke to someone who had not only spent £130 on a fake antivirus program, but given her card details over the phone...

John_Gray

Do you do any banking online? Do you save credit card numbers, bank information, passwords, etc, in any file on your PC?

If so, it is possible that this information has been stolen...

chookmom

Thank you.
I have done that. Luckily no banking is done on this computer.
Yes I feel stupid:embarasse but could have been worse and I will learn from it.

Dazzieb

Choookmom, without wanting to make things worse for you please read below for something that happened to a friend of mine in the past few weeks.

I have a friend who is in her 60's and has a fair idea of what's what on a PC, however.....

She received a call from an Indian company saying they were from 'Windows'. Obviously there is no such company called 'Windows' as it is a product name, it would be like someone callling from 'Tyres'' about your car!

Anyway, she was woken by the phone call and was all out of sorts and the guy said that she had viruses and malware on her PC. What threw her more than anything was the fact that they had her name and address, she therefore thought the call was authentic and was on the phone with them for over an hour. She only caught on when they said they could fix her PC for £170 and they wanted a credit card. She said she didn't have one and they asked if she used online Banking and she said no, so they sent her a bill by email and said they would call back every 30 minutes until she paid it, which they attempted but she just kept hanging up.

I am an IT Engineer by trade and I have control of her PC via certain methods myself. I asked her if she had downloaded anything and she said she hadn't but rather than take any risks I told her to disconnect her PC and drop it round to me when I got home from work. To be honest she was very embarrased.

When I analysed her PC I could see that the company in question had deployed Logmein Rescue to her PC (this is an application that is used for remote control of a PC's/Laptop's/MAC's etc) and had selected unattended access which grants them access to the PC without any additional permission being required. They also downloded 2 further applications to her PC and got her to visit a site with embedded Malware which would then have made their call more authentic if she had got to the point where she had run the 2 applications that had been downloaded as they would have discovered the Malware.

As a result I cleaned up her PC and she now uses password authentication to logon to her PC where as before she would have just clicked the Icon next too her name when Windows started up, this just adds another simple layer of security.

I would strongly recommend you follow the tips already given in this thread by the other posters by undertaking a System Restore (hoping that you have the feature enabled), make sure your Antivirus is bang up to date, complete a virus scan, download Malwarebytes Anti-malware and run a scan through with this, then download SurfRight Hitman Pro 3 and run through that (you will get a 30 day trial). If any of these applications find anything then run through the Malwarebytes and the SurfRight applications again until you get a 100% clean return, it may sound like overkill but it is better to be safe than sorry.

It is important to bear in mind that remnants of the Ammyy application may not flag up in the above appplications but if you are sure you have uninstallled it then you should be ok.

The best of luck

texranger

I have the same call twice to my home phone and once to my mobile. as soon as they mentioned they were from windows i just hung up

pelirocco

Ive had a call a few nights ago , but they were phoning from Microsoft I kept them talking for ages , give him his due , he was persistent and despite my best efforts to annoy him he stayed calm lol

texranger

This is the "Windows Service Centre" one which has been quite active, too. They call with the same message but steer you toward downloading their malware. This video shows what they do, it's well worth taking a few minutes to watch. http://youtu.be/41vbCFXqRy8

room237_2

these losers tried to scam my nan, fortunately she is clued up on these sorts of things as I warned her about it when I set up her computer for her.
how would they have known her name and address given that she is ex directory and doesn't have dealings with any companies apart from the council and BT?!

exprog

room237 wrote: »

how would they have known her name and address given that she is ex directory and doesn't have dealings with any companies apart from the council and BT?!

Electoral register, perhaps.