Phone call re. my computer. Scam.

mgfvvc

Pyxis wrote: »

Am worried, as I read that some people were told what their computer's number was......how can they know that?

They tell the target that the number they give is "your computer's number". In reality it is a number that is the same on all Windows computers. They rely on the target believing them when they say it is "your computer's number".

Oblivion

bsod wrote: »

I'm guessing oblivion thought it was your home number rather than the scammers caller id (which can be faked). The numbers scammers use should be spread widely to help others

Yes, the way it was worded I did think that.

Pyxis

Oblivion wrote: »

Yes, the way it was worded I did think that.

Sorry. I see that. I changed the wording. Thanks for your concern.

Pyxis

bsod wrote: »

You may have found that the scammer wouldn't have had a script prepared for your ipad, so they may have hung up on you if it had gone that far.

As soon as I heard a foreign (female) voice mention "how is my computer", I put the phone down without disconnecting, as I thought they could run their phone bill up for a bit, but didn't say another word. After a few "hello?hello?"s, they hung up.

Pyxis

Do you know, I must say what a fantastic Forum this is for getting answers to worrying queries almost immediately!

Without having posted this thread, I'd have worried about it for days, perhaps longer!

Thanks MSE, and thanks, you guys! I feel very relieved! :T

benje302

As said before there is nothing for you to worry about.

This is a similar thing to phishing (pronounced fishing) emails but over the phone.

They will call many people and say they are calling about your PC.

9 out of 10 people will ignore/hang up.
They are counting on the small number of people that take the bait (hence phishing).

Some of the scammers will ask you to run a program that will give them remote access to your PC. This is when the damage is done. They can then load any kind of malware/virus's etc or even take copies of personal infomation etc.

Unless you give them remote access to you computer they can do nothing.

Hope this helps

Ben

Pyxis

Thank you!

cono1717

I'd say 8 out of 10 people ignore, 1 out of 10 falls for it and there's people like me, the other 1 that has a virtual machine set up ready for them to waste their time on.