Screenconnect, Connectwise, Logmein Rescue, Teamviewer11, ShowMyPC, Microsoft Registartion Files

I received a message yesterday from the forum team advising me that they had put some energy into editing one of my earlier posts in this thread. Apparently I had posted something inappropriate which offended someone. I guess that means someone had put their energy into notifying the MSE team that they had been offended.

I am quite appalled by the way so many Techie knowledgeable posters use their energyies to pile in to denigrate a quite justifiable warning that remote control software is being typically used surreptitiously during calls by telephone scammers pretending to be tech support of one kind or another. I am further apalled that instead, these same posters wish to assert to MSE'ers at large, that the listed softwares are perfectly normally present on computers and so no warning is required, just techie type knowledge which you get by undergoing the necessary "education". Where you get it is anyone's guess - no-one is offering, least of all the forum.

I come here with good intention, and get told I don't know how remote control softwares work - why do I need to know chapter and verse on that? I have used a huge number of different tools over decades on PCs, often for very complex projects. When I need to understand them to the nth degree, I do thanks. I don't need to understand every trick and turn in the listed softwares in the title of this thread to know they were all used to perpitrate a fraud against an innocent and intelligent kind-hearted 76 year old woman who did nothing more than answer the phone and believe that the caller was also kind-hearted and calling officially from Microsoft.

I also get told I am making a fool of myself by banging this drum continuously. Fantastic news. Thanks very much, but news for you - I shall be the sole judge of that, MSE willing.

I can see all the softwares listed in the thread title were applied for / downloaded / access permitted on the victims machine, and were used during the particular scam I investigated. So my thread is based on true events. It is not some fiction or figment of someone's imagination. Over eight thousand quid went missing in the space of one telephone call with no form-filling or signatures necessary - pension scammers eat your heart out - you are in the wrong scamming business.

It doesn't matter exactly how the softwares ended up being used, but what does matter is they all did get used without the victim realising they were being used to scam her, and the victim is no idiot. What the differences are between each of the listed softwares is of only passing interest for some of the software manufacturers and others to think about.

These multiple software websites were not accessed as decoys for amateur sleuths like me to pick up the trail of the scammers, nor were they used for harmless fun. They had not been installed or used previously by the victim so that a techie neighbour might sit at his or her home and login to his helpless neighbour's PC to fix it whilst it was unattended. The victim in the case I worked on certainly did not authorise the purchase of premium remote control software licences, yet her current account was used to fund two such licences and yes, despite the scoffing in this thread, the scammers did buy the heavyweight software with money from the victims account rather than just pocket that money and run. That's because they used it on their next victims.

The victim in my case did not deliberately open her computer up to any kind of hacking, but hacked she was and the trail of hacking included every software mentioned in the title of this thread.

MSE'ers generally might like to take good note, and whether or not they feel confident they aren't going to fall for a Tech Support Scam themselves, I urge that they redouble their efforts to warn vulnerable neighbours who are computer users but may be of the trusting kind-hearted type who haven't a clue that such a risk ever did exist, or that it still very much does exist in ever more sophisticated form.

If any poster seriously wishes to reassert here in a public forum that no real-time warning is necessary about the sudden appearance of any of these softwares on a PC, especially all in one session, then you must surely also explain properly why it is ok for a normal Windows 10 system, including Windows Defender, to behave so passively, and for Windows 10 compatible third party softwares to also behave so passively in such a way as to allow a 76 year old woman to be progressively scammed using them without having a clue what is being perpitrated against her.

I also have some further news for smart-Alecs:

I note that ShowmyPC.com has actually started to put a warning on their website behind their Free Download link, about recent reports of their software being used for malicious purposes, although I do not consider the route to that warning page from their homepage, where the free download link sits, to be a particularly good one. It is still too easy to visit their homepage and to proceed to download the software fast after quickly clicking the Continue link which bypasses the warning.

The SHowmyPC.com two-liner in red on their warning page should actually be in your face on the homepage:
Some examples of scam phone calls include callers claiming to be tech support specialists, or claiming to be from known companies such as Microsoft. They will inform you of potential issues on your computer and offer to fix it by asking you to grant them access to your computer.

It just so happens that ShowmyPC was the first in the line of webpages the victim was directed to when the scammer got into his stride; ShowmyPC - the universal tin-opener of preference to any self-respecting scammer perhaps? Once the lid is off, that's when the other softwares get introduced if the victim is still sitting oblivious at their screen and following the kind-hearted patient scammer's advice as best he or she can, all the time believing the computer has been hacked ... and by the time Showmy PC is installed, of course it now has been.

Now do any of you gurus now concur that there is a risk that should be flagged? Or are ShowmyPC making fools of themselves also, because the other software houses still aren't issuing warnings ?

My version of reality, AndyPix is pretty well founded. I get yours is different, and I get that mine is more caring of vulnerable computer users than yours. Almillar conceded that ShowmyPC are being responsible in acknowledging their software gets used for malicious purposes. I am being responsible in making sure that your view on this important subject does not predominate in this, your favourite "home ground" forum.

You are deliberately diluting an important warning.

tempus_fugit wrote: »

almillar wrote:

This was the mistake, you see. Stop banging on about remote desktop software. Start banging on that people shouldn't believe calls from 'Microsoft', 'BT', 'AOL' 'your ISP', 'your bank', 'DHL' etc. If people, non-techie people, follow this advice, they never need to FIND OUT what remote desktop software is, nor why it can be dangerous.
You're letting the criminal in through the open front door, and telling people to hide their car keys. You should be telling them to lock the front door instead!

^^ This, absolutely, is it.

Wrong. That analogy is extremely poorly chosen. Microsoft Tech Support Scam has nothing whatever to do with leaving a valuable item in an unlocked place where an anonymous stranger can quickly nip in and take the item without being noticed. In fact it is a totally useless analogy.

You clearly do not understand the nature of typical human vulnerability or that generations before you naturally trust people who appear kind-hearted and who offer to help. God help some of you when you start getting confused and unsure of yourselves or how you cope with life's essential items like PCs are right now for internet banking.

Are you aware of any of your own weaknesses whatsoever yet? I can tell you it does actually give you a better perspective on others' vulnerabilities once you are able to identify your own.

I must presume that none of you self-contained fan-club of three or four have yet got to the stage with the inevitable loss of some of your marbles where you accept that you have started to more frequently forget things (including bloody great lists of household name brands that you scarcely use from one day to the next but which if someone says they work for one of them, you are instantly to put the phone down - wow ... I gave you Microsoft for ten, but you've added a whole new bunch ... is the world that bad? I had two calls from different people at my bank today ... should I have hung up?). You've an interesting take on these things, eh, almillar? Lock your doors and don't let anyone in? Is that it?

So I guess you won't yet have needed to develop any coping strategies to patch up and repair some parts of your reduced memory? And none of you will admit to any sort of confusion about who to trust and who not to trust or indeed about what is normal to expect from a telephone caller and what is not normal? No of course not ... silly me for even thinking there might come a time.

None of you have ever had to rely on someone else because you know you are not clever enough to understand or fix your own technical problems? Pardon? Not bloody likely, eh? Oh but I bet you have handed over your car keys a few times and trusted you'd get them back?

Well then news for you again ... there are more of us out here who can admit to vulnerability than there are who can't or won't, and that means a few well placed responsible warnings when we are about to download unfamiliar dangerous software might help us keep out of trouble, even if they won't help you and your mates.

ShowmyPC admits there is a problem of the exact type I am warning about.

You guys can continue to knock it down it you like, but I consider you are being irresponsible if you do.

So have any of you have ever investigated a PC where all the listed softwares in the title of this thread have appeared for the first time and all been used on the same morning to perpitrate a major fraud?

I have. I am qualified to report it. What qualifies you to keep coming here and knocking the report and ridiculing the victim? Nothing but a questionable attitude it would seem ...