My mum's been had by a telephone scam 16 December 2022 at 3:33PM in Techie Stuff 14 replies 1.2K views

clairebear1976

Bradden said:

@clairebear1976 I think that Bonhomie was confused as you said you'd wiped and done alean windows installation and then posted that you were going back to see what programs were installed. If you've done a fresh install then there shouldn't be anything else installed to check? I

There shouldn't have been anything on there but, again, just being a bit over careful. I'm not very clear on how my mum gave them access, the story I got was a bit muddled, so I've been double and triple checking everything. I went into Windows Security as my first port of call and the option to scan for virus's was greyed out, that's why I put AVG on, though I am going to take it off a bit later today 

Bonhomie

clairebear1976 said:

Bradden said:

@clairebear1976 I think that Bonhomie was confused as you said you'd wiped and done alean windows installation and then posted that you were going back to see what programs were installed. If you've done a fresh install then there shouldn't be anything else installed to check? I

There shouldn't have been anything on there but, again, just being a bit over careful. I'm not very clear on how my mum gave them access, the story I got was a bit muddled, so I've been double and triple checking everything. I went into Windows Security as my first port of call and the option to scan for virus's was greyed out, that's why I put AVG on, though I am going to take it off a bit later today 

How exactly did you "çlear the hard drive"? If you just ran a Factory Restore, it could be that you have installed an older version of Windows 10 that needs updating. Do you intend to reveal the model details?

"Clear the hard drive" should mean to delete all partitions and format.

halfamo

She probably got one of those pop ups. It would have a phone number for her to call.
They pretend to be from microsoft or a computer maintenance company or  similar. Then they walk their victim through installing a software that allows them to control the PC remotely.
If they have actually used her debit card, she must have given them the number and the code off the back so having that all changed was good thinking.
There are various scams of this kind on jimbrowning's channel on YT.
They tell the victim to allow them access to their PC and then have them log onto their bank account for a 'compensation payment' to go through. That way they get to see the victims bank security passwords which they then add to their victim database along with any other info they have gleaned for future scamming..

They also try various WAYS of getting money from the victim  ..one is  making it appear that too much money was 'sent' and asking for it to be paid back..'
They might try requesting gift cards in payment if the victim agrees and will even stay on the phone while the victim physically goes to a shop and buys them  so they would be untraceable.
Then the victim is told to tell them the codes on the cards they have bought.

Absolute parasites and they dont care who they prey on.

She should be fine though if the bank now knows .security accesses have been changed and the software is gone from the computer.

Miser1964

Defender in Windows 10 is just as good as AVG, and won't try and sell bloatware.

But for complete peace-of-mind, I'd re-install Windows from scratch, reformatting the drive in the process.