Scamming phone call - PC

silkyuk9 · 6 November 2013 at 1:21PM

Just had a phone call from an idiot informing me that my pc was infected. Yes I know a scam of some sort but went along with the conversation to see if I could get any info to warn others, The guy hung up on me when I told him there was smoke coming from the tower.

Anyway, instructions he gave me was.

press and hold the windows logo key left of the ALT and press the letter R at the same time

in the box that pops up enter these letters EVENTVWR and press ok.

He said then another box comes up and tells me what was infecting my pc.

I did not go through the process as I was not near my phone so do not know where the line of instructions were going to go.

Any ideas from my brief conversation with the Asian guy (phone number withheld and no mention of company name) what we were going to do from the brief instructions?

Tyler_Du · 6 November 2013 at 1:29PM

I've had a couple of these calls, I believe they actually get you to download a virus / trojan of some sort and them charge you to remove it. I see how long I can keep them on the phone claiming to be computer illiterate, last time after 5 mins or so I told them I was giving the phone to someone who knew more about computers than both of us and then gave the phone to my 2 year old who happily chatted away with them

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/11/malwarebytes

WTFH · 6 November 2013 at 1:31PM

They get you to look at your event viewer. If you've never looked at it before, you start to panic because it will have lots of yellow WARNING messages and maybe even a few red ERROR messages.

The warning messages can be as simple as a piece of information is missing, an error could be that a program failed to start (or shut down).
Let's say you're updating iTunes on your computer. The Event Log will record errors about Bonjour Service during the update. Nothing wrong there - it's just that the program couldn't start while you were installing iTunes.

After they've got you worried, they tell you to go to a particular website, download the software and run it. Then they will tell you to type in a code and after that, they will take control of your computer. And that is when you're really in trouble. It's nothing to do with installing viruses, it's about getting control of your machine.

McKneff · 6 November 2013 at 2:21PM

I get them often, I take great pleasure in winding them up, then I tell them 'I don't actually have a computer'

If I cant be bothered I just say, 'hold on a moment please' just lay the phone to one side and forget it.

silkyuk9 · 6 November 2013 at 3:00PM

WTFH wrote: »

They get you to look at your event viewer. If you've never looked at it before, you start to panic because it will have lots of yellow WARNING messages and maybe even a few red ERROR messages.

The warning messages can be as simple as a piece of information is missing, an error could be that a program failed to start (or shut down).
Let's say you're updating iTunes on your computer. The Event Log will record errors about Bonjour Service during the update. Nothing wrong there - it's just that the program couldn't start while you were installing iTunes.

After they've got you worried, they tell you to go to a particular website, download the software and run it. Then they will tell you to type in a code and after that, they will take control of your computer. And that is when you're really in trouble. It's nothing to do with installing viruses, it's about getting control of your machine.

Its very easy to get control of a pc, only yesterday ive been trying to update windows 8 to 8.1 and my apps on 8 are not working. I gave microsoft a call (yes genuine microsoft) and discussed the issue with them, I was then handed over to a techie guy whom then took charge of my pc. It was fascinating to watch my mouse move with someone proberly in Asia trying to fix my windows 8 ap store. After 2 hours of trying they could not fix it so another person will call me tomorrow to have a go.

Like you were saying i had to go to a micrsoft web page and a 'chat' box came up and once I gave permission to them they took over my pc. I watched all the time and at no time did they snoop into my private things

Its quite a worry these days as this guy rang today telling me I had probs with my pc and if I wasnt as savvy may well have given them access too.

Bloody crooks.

NowRetired · 6 November 2013 at 4:59PM

Are you sure it was a genuine Microsoft web page?

Post the web page link.

scheming_gypsy · 6 November 2013 at 5:12PM

WTFH wrote: »

It's nothing to do with installing viruses, it's about getting control of your machine.

it's not that they want control of your machine, it's even more simple than that.
You go to Event Viewer and they point out all the errors and warnings and tell you that it's caused by a virus. Then they charge you to 'fix' the problems - ie mess about for a while and then just clear the logs.

silkyuk9 · 6 November 2013 at 5:25PM

NowRetired wrote: »

Are you sure it was a genuine Microsoft web page?

Post the web page link.

I went through the phone line and checked the number on google also it was a 0800 number and checked out correct

datostar · 6 November 2013 at 7:06PM

The latest call I had was a female person with an Indian accent claiming that my computer was flashing up warnings to them that it was infected with a virus. I asked her to tell me my IP address so that I could confirm that it was indeed my computer sending these warnings. She said, 'I cannot give you this information' and rang off. I'll use this one again if I can't be bothered to play them along for while.

michael243 · 6 November 2013 at 7:52PM

I have had this a couple times, on the last time he said his name was "Seven" anyways I spoke to him for around 10 mins before asking him if he take the £100 in 25p weekly payments, he then cut me off.