scammers allowed access

photome

agrinnall wrote: »

Maybe so, but did it never cross your mind that binning the laptop might be something of an overreaction?

maybe, maybe not, thats why i asked,

i must remember to know more before i ask anything in future

agrinnall

photome wrote: »

maybe, maybe not, thats why i asked,

i must remember to know more before i ask anything in future

But it might have been better to ask before telling your mother to bin the computer, which hopefully she didn't act on immediately. Simply saying don't use it for now would have been enough to start with.

Ant555

If you want to be relatively safe and insulate the lap top from any perceived threats then switch off the wifi router whilst you take a look at the lap top.

Yes, it is possible that something has been installed on there just like its possible for things to get installed when clicking on a dodgy link in an email or visiting an infected web site but its more likely to just have been a remote control session where they had a look around for an hour.

When your mum 'hung up' was she on the telephone to them at this point or did she hang up the remote connection on the lap top by clicking on the disconnect bottom or something?

If you are able to run anti-malware and anti-virus on your mums lap top then that's probably what should happen next.

The bottom line is its almost certainly all fixable.

Hope this helps

JohnB47

It's a pity that more people can't be sympathetic in their replies.


I think that hearing about these occurrences is good for the rest of us - it reminds us that, despite thinking otherwise, people still get caught out. So it stops us getting too complacent.


My wife and I are pretty computer savvy, but I'm always worried that we'll get scammed. The other day she received a confirmation email from Ama*on for something that she didn't order and inviting her to click on a link if she wanted to query it. An obvious scam, which she reported. More obvious are the emails from companies that we don't use but they're getting cleverer all the time.


My view is that we should never click on a link in an email, even when we're 'sure' it's from a legitimate source. In fact, I feel that people sending these emails should not include links in them. Instead they should simply say "go to our home page and check your account". All this stuff about "you know this email is legitimate because we quote your full name, or we quote the last four digits of your credit card number ...." simply plays into the hands of the scammers. ALL emails from companies should be treated as scams, as far as links are concerned.


Just my views and hoping I'm not next!

almillar

I haven't seen anyone advising to install malwarebytes and run a scan, so when you get to the computer, try that and hopefully it's clean.

DoaM

As above ... and also ADW Cleaner. Both can be downloaded by you to a USB stick, then Mum's computer can be cleaned whilst not being connected to the Internet.

bluesnake

recover via a restore point

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

Johnmcl7

almillar wrote: »

I haven't seen anyone advising to install malwarebytes and run a scan, so when you get to the computer, try that and hopefully it's clean.

I'd recommend Malwarebytes as well, OP you can get it here:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

When you install it, stick with the free one and don't choose to activate the pro version - you just need to do a one off scan. You're right to be cautious, in most cases of these scams when I've looked at the PC afterwards I've only found the remote control software as people have got suspicious before anything further has happened but I still check as much as possible to make sure.

John

dggar

bluesnake wrote: »

recover via a restore point

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options

Any restore point will probably have been compromised or deleted during the remote control session

Sicard

photome wrote: »

There's always one or even two.

I thought it a sensible question I am not exactly tech savvy and my 80 plus year old mum definitely isn't.

You thought you'd come to a supportive consumer protection forum and get supportive advice from all and sundry? Well, you have got some good advice but be aware there are those trawling these forums who live very sad and lonely lives and seem to derive some sort of perverse pleasure from putting people down. There's even one who trawls for what it considers pointless posts and states it is in despair (!).

The best scans are with Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner because they may have put trojans or worms on her pc. They may have even have installed a key-logger which is a kind of investment for these thieves.