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Cold callers purporting to be technical support

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    Cold callers purporting to be technical support

    Anyone ever had one of these? I've had a couple and it's now become a game to see how long I can keep them on the phone for.

    First, they tell you that there is currently high virus activity on the internet, and that your computer has been automatically downloading some of these viruses. They walk you through running Event Viewer and point out all the errors, which they claim are viruses. This presumably is to convince you that you have a genuine issue (even though seeing errors in event viewer is obviously fairly normal for a windows machine).

    If you haven't put the phone down by this point, they then direct you to a URL and get you to download and run the VNC-like remote access software. I haven't allowed them to go any further than this, but apparently once they're able to remote in to your PC they start harvesting credit card details and banking logins etc.

    Sounds like a remarkably elaborate mechanism just to get remote access to a couple of PCs, but from the sounds of the phone calls they are a pretty big operation (you can overhear a lot of other call centre agents), in India (of course). From poking around it sounds like the scam has been running for years in one form or another, so I can only imagine it works pretty well. Social engineering is supposedly a very effective form of scam.
    "A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the s*** that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come." -- Lester Freamon

    #2
    I've had a couple of these in the office. The first time I asked them for a number so our IT people could call them back, they gave some number in Manchester which was answered by a bemused foreign sounding chap when we called back. Second time I just laughed and hung up.

    There are some fab taped conversations on the web where people have strung them along for ages before they realised they were being taking for a ride.
    ContractorUK Best Forum Adviser 2013

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      #3
      Originally posted by Clare@InTouch View Post
      I've had a couple of these in the office. The first time I asked them for a number so our IT people could call them back, they gave some number in Manchester which was answered by a bemused foreign sounding chap when we called back. Second time I just laughed and hung up.

      There are some fab taped conversations on the web where people have strung them along for ages before they realised they were being taking for a ride.
      I'm surprised they actually gave you a number - I'll have to ask for one next time they ring!
      "A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the s*** that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come." -- Lester Freamon

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        #4
        Originally posted by Freamon View Post
        I'm surprised they actually gave you a number - I'll have to ask for one next time they ring!
        It did throw her for a second, she was in the middle of trying to get me download Teamviewer and had to think on her feet to give me some random number. Probably why the man we got when we called back sounded so confused
        ContractorUK Best Forum Adviser 2013

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          #5
          I normally keep them on the line long enough to open up a new VM and see how dumb I can play
          Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy
          I can't see any way to do it can you please advise?

          I want my account deleted and all of my information removed, I want to invoke my right to be forgotten.

          Comment


            #6
            Do they support Macs???

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by stek View Post
              Do they support Macs???
              They didn't seem to be able to help me (
              Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy
              I can't see any way to do it can you please advise?

              I want my account deleted and all of my information removed, I want to invoke my right to be forgotten.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by SimonMac View Post
                I normally keep them on the line long enough to open up a new VM and see how dumb I can play
                Did you get to the point of allowing them to remote in?
                "A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the s*** that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come." -- Lester Freamon

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Freamon View Post
                  I'm surprised they actually gave you a number - I'll have to ask for one next time they ring!
                  You're only hurting yourself.
                  What happens in General, stays in General.
                  You know what they say about assumptions!

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                    #10
                    I had a bizarre one where the guy went through the first part of the script then simply said "Make sure you keep your anti-virus software up to date" and hung up! WTF was that about?

                    Maybe I played too dumb and he felt sorry for me.

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