I am really angry at the moment regarding a cold call made to my neighbour, arrrrrrrr

trinidadone

Hi all, a combination of venting and what to do next.

My neighbour who is vulnrable received a cold call.

My neighbour has only started to view the WWW this year.

A genleman told my neighbour, he had identified viruses on my neighbours PC

long story short, the guy has taken £180.00 off her credit card for a "life time of anti virus" mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

My neighbour has told me, they have taken remote accessing on my neighbours laptop.

My neighbour is of retirement age, and I feel my neighbour has clearly signed up to something , my neighbour knows little about.

I have decided to call the company and request a refund right away. If they refuse, hold the credit card company to account as its over £100.00

I am interested to hear peoples views/thoughts

barneyr_2

I can understand your anger at this behaviour
I don't want to depress or make false accusations but are you sure the company isn't a criminal outfit that has actually installed viruses ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11754487
Is it worth posting to a computer website such as http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ to ask advice ?

bod1467

They probably called themselves Windows Technical Support.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5008556

It IS a scam. Get the CC company to charge it back.

lovinituk

Don't bother trying to call the company. It will likely be a criminal outfit based overseas. You may be able to get the money back via the credit card route.

However, as above, the laptop is highly likely to be infected now. Tell your neighbour not to anything that requires entering passwords or personal details as it is likely being keylogged. You need someone who knows what they are doing to sort the laptop out. Reformatting it and reinstalling the op system is the safest bet.

PasturesNew

Just to repeat what the others have said ... it's 99.99% the case that these are criminals who have done some/all of the following:

a] Installed keylogging software on the PC so they can capture bank details/similar
b] Will be multiple charging/emptying the person's bank account

Need to get onto their bank, cancel anything, cancel it all, have the PC checked out.

El_Torro

The £180 that they have charged is the least of your worries. What they really wanted was to gain access to the laptop to see what else they could get. As others have said, get it wiped and reinstalled ASAP.

stebiz

If it wasn't for the fact that my Dad and also next door neighbour got caught left, right and sinker for this I'd say how foolish can somebody be. But you are right, not all of us have been brought up in a world of cyber crime.

The others are right though. The computer needs wiping and a charge back on the card.

tomtontom

stebiz wrote: »

If it wasn't for the fact that my Dad and also next door neighbour got caught left, right and sinker for this I'd say how foolish can somebody be. But you are right, not all of us have been brought up in a world of cyber crime.

The others are right though. The computer needs wiping and a charge back on the card.

They tried to get my dad too. Luckily I've drilled into him that anything he's unsure of to call me on the mobile at the same time - he put me and the scammer both on loud speaker and I told him exactly where to go. It really got to him though, I had to go over and show him all the reports of it happening to other people, and to prove that the information they claimed to have about his computer was all made up.

trinidadone, please let your neighbour know this is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about, these people can be very convincing. It is natural to not want to talk about things like this, but what we need to do is tell everyone, in the hope that no one else will get caught out.

There are not many things that get me wound up, but these scumbags make my blood boil!

daytona0

1stly, establish whether it is a legitimate company or a scam. Just because it SEEMS to be a scam doesn't automatically MAKE it a scam (though it probably is).

Were it to turn out to be a legitimate company who have acted above board then you would need to take a different approach.

bod1467

Can you name any one legitimate company that would cold-call someone about their computer "sending out errors"?

daytona0

bod1467 wrote: »

Can you name any one legitimate company that would cold-call someone about their computer "sending out errors"?

Just because it SEEMS to be a scam doesn't automatically MAKE it a scam (though it probably is).