Is this a scam please?

closed

before you panic and start contacting banks and wiping pc's - these scams are intended to scam you out of money voluntarily to fix non-existent problems on your pc, not to infect your machine, install keyloggers, or steal your internet banking passwords

scans are unlikely to find anything bad, but a malwarebytes scan will do no harm

There are probably hundreds of similar threads if you search the techie forum for scam

spannerzone

Totally agree with Closed, there's been no indication that any of these calls that use remote assistance actually do anything bad to your computer, the only bad thing they do is try to trick you into paying for them to fix a problem that probably didn't exist.

While there's no harm in doing a virus and malware scan, I think you'll be pretty safe. Unless anyone cares to provide information to the contrary.

Symantec

jamanda wrote: »

I've just been called by someone purporting to be from Virgin media checking my broadband connection. (have had a couple of intermittent problems in the past.)


They told me to go on line, and change the http of my homepage to something else which I've forgotten(but Norton said it was safe). I think it allowed access to the computer, and eventually a list of files came up and he said they were corrupted and should be removed from the computer as they were making it run slow.


Alarm bells rang, and I said I didn't think they should be checking the computer itself, just the connection and switched the computer off.


I suspect I've been stupid and have been got at.


Everything seemed above board until they said the computer itself wanted cleaning up


Rang Virgin, who have no record of a call.


Any advice on what to do would be welcome.


Thank you

Hello,

This seems to be a typical case of scam. They normally access your computer, take you to Event Viewer, show you the errors listed there, and convince you that your computer is infected. Good to know that you have disconnected the call and Internet connection before they start attempting something.

However; I would recommend that you start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking and then run a scan using the free Norton Power Eraser tool: http://www.Norton.com/npe.

Let me know the result of the scan.

Thanks!

Vineeth
Norton Support

robatwork

Ah - a Norton Rep - excellent. I won't mention past experiences with Norton IS but ask you about this Power Eraser - does it remove rootkits - as crimeware isn't a phrase I am familiar with?

thanks

Symantec

robatwork wrote: »

Ah - a Norton Rep - excellent. I won't mention past experiences with Norton IS but ask you about this Power Eraser - does it remove rootkits - as crimeware isn't a phrase I am familiar with?

thanks

Yes, it removes Rootkit as well.

Thanks!

Vineeth
Norton Support