Beware - New Scammers about

Fizman

This is the first instance of this I've come across (haven't read about it either) but thought it would be worth posting.

I popped back to my folks this evening for some grub. The house phone started ringing at about 18:50. I answered and some lad ask for my dad (by name). Told him he wasn't home so then asked if I was a family member. I said yes.

To paraphrase what he said as best I can (not exactly verbatim but close enough):

"Hello Sir. I am ringing from xxxx (didn't hear the name of the company as the line was terrible) in connection with some harmful infections that may have affected your computer. Several connections in your area have been infected and I need to perform a check on your IT system."

At this point I was like "riiiiiiiight".

He then asked me what operating system our pc was and he then asked if he could speak to me while on the PC. More than suspicious at this point I went to the PC. He then asked me to click on Start, and Run, and to type something along the lines of "eventncr" into the run field and hit Enter. At this point I asked him again what he thought may be wrong with the PC, and what viruses could be present (and why).

"No they are not viruses, these are harmful infections". :rolleyes:

I replied "Well our system has fully licensed internet protection as well as a firewall (Kaspersky Internet Security 2010), so everything should be ok".

"No these Anti virus programs cannot detect these harmful infections".

I then asked him could he explain the difference between a harmful infection and a virus, as I work in the IT industry (which I do) and I come across malware and viruses on a regular basis.

There was a long pause and he hung up. This cowboys number was also strange. It was 001219. Foreign sounding guy on a terrible line. Sounds like he was trying to either get into the registry of the system or something along those lines. Good thing my parents or sisters didn't answer as they could have played along.

Just thought I'd give a heads up. There's cowboys out there!

phasers

I always say "I don't have a computer. I don't even have a phone, how are you ringing me?"

TPD

phasers wrote: »

I always say "I don't have a computer. I don't even have a phone, how are you ringing me?"

How many times have they rang you?

phasers

TPD wrote: »

How many times have they rang you?

I've gotten this one once, but that line is good for telemarketers and fake bank people as well

TPD

phasers wrote: »

I've gotten this one once, but that line is good for telemarketers and fake bank people as well

Was thinking, your computer must have been rightly fucked.

phasers

TPD wrote: »

Was thinking, your computer must have been rightly fucked.

I knew they were talking shyte cos my PC got all it's injections before I bought it

Agricola

Hah. Comical. Id love a call like that. I would fúck that guy up!

PeterIanStaker

Get these chancers now and again. I sometimes put on an Ould Mr Brennan voice "Bejase, Oi wudnt know anything about that, I'm just in doin' a bit o paintin', man of de house left de keys"

Come to think of it, there about the only ones who ring the landline!

Mike 1972

Fizman wrote: »

. This cowboys number was also strange. It was 001219. Foreign sounding guy on a terrible line.

00 1 219 = Northwest Indiana (USA) but could really be anywhere (caller ID is spoofable apparently)

star.chaser

was it this guy

Uthur

LOL i had one of these clowns call me a few weeks back too! he sounded african to me but i can't be any more specific. i was in a rush so i told him i didn't own a computer and he hung up. if i'd had the time i'd have played along to see what he was trying to get at.

starbelgrade

My computer has AIDS. Norton did feic all use there.

liah

starbelgrade wrote: »

My computer has AIDS. Norton did feic all use there.

Norton IS aids.

Blackhorse Slim

Would these guys have to pay for the calls? If so I'd keep them on the line as long as possible.

landsleaving

This guy sounds a lot like a Nigerian prince I made friends with online.

Stephentlig

Thank you for this information.

Pax Christi
Stephen<3

Alanstrainor

"My computer is running linux". That usually shuts them up.

spider guardian

this was mentioned in the computer forum as well. tell them you replaced the flux capacitor there last week and it's runnin grand thank you very much :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZpw2eTSolc

ejmaztec

star.chaser wrote: »

was it this guy

I don't think that his face was visible down the mouthpiece.

Ridley

Fizman wrote: »

More than suspicious at this point I went to the PC.

Why?

Doop

Just act like an old wan..... "off to the pc i go"... (5 mins of struggling beacuse of your bad hip) then question as to how one turns on a "PC"... half an hour later, laugh and say "oooh deary me... its wasn't plugged in"

cherryghost

yeah my mate in work got about 5 of these calls over the last 2 days at the reception

L1011

Ooh, I can't wait for these ones to call

"Ah right, I'll go check my Haiku laptop for "harmful infections", while I'm at it I'll check the Powermac in my studio..."

Antar Bolaeisk

Things like this really shouldn't work as if people applied the least amount of common sense, these guys are able to tell you that there is some form of infection on your computer but can't tell you what system you are running (okay there are people out there who couldn't tell the difference between a Linux OS or a Microsoft OS, let alone the difference between the various different editions of Windows, to them it doesn't matter so long as they can open Facebook and that's fine), they should realise something smells a bit fishy. Sadly the ability to apply logic to a situation seems to diminish the nearer one is to a computer.

Thankfully my family know that if there's something wrong with the computer they ask me and certainly know not to trust some faintly African sounding person ringing from God knows where.

Of course, if I ever do get one of these calls I'm definitely going to try and wind them up because I'm evil like that

P.K

Fizman wrote: »

It was 001219. Foreign sounding guy on a terrible line. Sounds like he was trying to either get into the registry of the system or something along those lines. Good thing my parents or sisters didn't answer as they could have played along.

Just thought I'd give a heads up. There's cowboys out there!

There also pretending to be bord Gáis:rolleyes:

stevo25

lol i love stupid telemarketer and taking the pi$$ out of them. it didn't sound like George did it ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372Ah0Z_L1w

Canis Lupus

Fizman wrote: »

as I work in the IT industry (which I do)

And he got you as far as typing stuff on your pc. lol.

Forest Master

Fizman wrote: »

I popped back to my folks this evening for some grub. The house phone started ringing at about 18:50. I answered and some lad ask for my dad (by name). Told him he wasn't home so then asked if I was a family member. I said yes.

To paraphrase what he said as best I can (not exactly verbatim but close enough):

"Hello Sir. I am ringing from xxxx (didn't hear the name of the company as the line was terrible) in connection with some harmful infections that may have affected your computer. Several connections in your area have been infected and I need to perform a check on your IT system."

At this point I was like "riiiiiiiight".

Why didn't you hang up at this point?

Burning Eclipse

Thanks for the info Fizman. I'd hazard a guess that your parents phone number is in the directory if he asked for your dad by name.

As for the people questioning the duration of the call, I'd string it out for a while, get the scammers hopes up, before informing the guy that his scam was going nowhere! 419eater style.

Theta

Plus id be interested to find out what they are trying to get you to do.

allthedoyles

Theta wrote: »

Plus id be interested to find out what they are trying to get you to do.

Exactly - what type of scam could this be ?

moonpurple

i have never had my fone number in a public lit for a long time

Pot Noodle =

That happened to me about a month ago i posted it on Boards foret where

tomhappens

OP Did your dad every fill in one of those stupid lottery type scratch card things that fall out of magazines and papers?

People who actually do those and post them off for their surprise gift tend to end up on a thing called the Stupid List.

That is then sold on to lots of devious companies who take advantage of people stupid enough to post off for those prizes.

Theta

allthedoyles wrote: »

Exactly - what type of scam could this be ?

Id say they were trying to get you to download something nasty on the sly or maybe it is a round about way of making it look like something is wrong then take CC details over the phone or something!

star.chaser

only heard about a new scam last week so this could be connected. scammers access your computer, usually business, and encrypt all you customer data effectively crippling your business. then they leave a note asking for usually just a couple of hundred euros for the password.

Forest Master

Theta wrote: »

Plus id be interested to find out what they are trying to get you to do.

Then just stay on the phone & buzz off them for a few mins. The OP actually went over to his parents PC & starting typing in CMD prompts. He didn't "mess" with the caller - he entertained him.

Fizman

Canis Lupus wrote: »

And he got you as far as typing stuff on your pc. lol.

Tbh I was hoping that I was in with a shout of winning millions of Nigerian dollars.

Ya I know I could have hung up immediately, but in a way I wanted to entertain him for another minute or so just to see what his plan was. Of course after a few seconds of the conversation I knew he was full of sh1t.

Theta

Forest Master wrote: »

Then just stay on the phone & buzz off them for a few mins. The OP actually went over to his parents PC & starting typing in CMD prompts. He didn't "mess" with the caller - he entertained him.

Yeah well I have to say I most likely would not have bothered to goto the computer either. Just gone "yes alright yes uhuh yeah right i see it click the x yes"

ash xxx

Same thing happened to my nana, they had her on the phone for 2 hours, the wan*ers. They try get access to your PC for cc details and the like by saying they'll get rid of the viruses for you.

My cousin luckily got rid of anything they may have put on there as he works in IT but trying to scam 70 year olds, thats low!! :mad:

Fizman

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Thanks for the info Fizman. I'd hazard a guess that your parents phone number is in the directory if he asked for your dad by name.

As for the people questioning the duration of the call, I'd string it out for a while, get the scammers hopes up, before informing the guy that his scam was going nowhere! 419eater style.

This is exactly why I gave him a bit more of my time.

On reading back.....and just to explain to the folks who are amazed that I even went to the PC.......the phone and the computer are yards away from each other. I didn't scramble in a panic to another floor of the house in the hope of rescuing it.

The point of staying on the phone a few extra seconds was to find out what they wanted me to run.

Fizman

tomhappens wrote: »

OP Did your dad every fill in one of those stupid lottery type scratch card things that fall out of magazines and papers?

People who actually do those and post them off for their surprise gift tend to end up on a thing called the Stupid List.

That is then sold on to lots of devious companies who take advantage of people stupid enough to post of for those prizes.

No, my parents are certainly not the type to entertain any of the spam crap that is found in rags.

lamai

Fizman wrote: »

This is the first instance of this I've come across (haven't read about it either) but thought it would be worth posting.

I popped back to my folks this evening for some grub. The house phone started ringing at about 18:50. I answered and some lad ask for my dad (by name). Told him he wasn't home so then asked if I was a family member. I said yes.

To paraphrase what he said as best I can (not exactly verbatim but close enough):

"Hello Sir. I am ringing from xxxx (didn't hear the name of the company as the line was terrible) in connection with some harmful infections that may have affected your computer. Several connections in your area have been infected and I need to perform a check on your IT system."

At this point I was like "riiiiiiiight".

He then asked me what operating system our pc was and he then asked if he could speak to me while on the PC. More than suspicious at this point I went to the PC. He then asked me to click on Start, and Run, and to type something along the lines of "eventncr" into the run field and hit Enter. At this point I asked him again what he thought may be wrong with the PC, and what viruses could be present (and why).

"No they are not viruses, these are harmful infections". :rolleyes:

I replied "Well our system has fully licensed internet protection as well as a firewall (Kaspersky Internet Security 2010), so everything should be ok".

"No these Anti virus programs cannot detect these harmful infections".

I then asked him could he explain the difference between a harmful infection and a virus, as I work in the IT industry (which I do) and I come across malware and viruses on a regular basis.

There was a long pause and he hung up. This cowboys number was also strange. It was 001219. Foreign sounding guy on a terrible line. Sounds like he was trying to either get into the registry of the system or something along those lines. Good thing my parents or sisters didn't answer as they could have played along.

Just thought I'd give a heads up. There's cowboys out there!

I wish they would ring me I would fcuking wreck his head. Run where is that.

anykey where is the anykey:D

Qs

These lads rang me yesterday, soon as they said who they were I searched here, seen it was a scam and abused the hell out of him over the phone.


Boards 1 - scammers 0

littlehedgehog

Same call to my parents. They were from 'Microsoft'. They basically get you to look at your event viewer, and say, oh, all those red and yellow symbols mean your computer is RIDDLED with viruses *rolls eyes*.

Then they tell you to go back to the Run box and put in a URL (I assume to make it seem all above board, because 'Oh, I'm not going on the internet, so it couldn't be an internet scam'? I presume?)

Then, I guess, the site either asks for credit card, or downloads something onto the computer, or.. yeah, any number of things. My mam was suspicious from the start and didn't go that far.

Scum. Absolute scum.

Dermot Illogical

They're a company calling themselves online pc doctor. They offer to 'fix' problems you don't have by getting you to allow them remote access. They charge €90 for the privilege. If you're really lucky they will offer you their extended deal and you can sleep peacefully for another €200.

Fizman

Bingo!
"Eventvwr" was what they asked me to type in. A quick google and it seems like a scam that's running a few months now.

o1s1n

Thing about these guys is they're probably dumb enough to be scammed themselves 419 scam bait style.

'No my computer is fine, but I can tell over the telephone like that your computer is actually infected with the H1N1 virus. If you follow my commands it will fix your pc'

'Oh really?'

'Yes, to fix it go to run, and type 'CMD'..>insert command to format C: drive< and confirm'

stovelid

Situations like this I love my air horn.

Forest Master

Fizman wrote: »

The point of staying on the phone a few extra seconds was to find out what they wanted me to run.

You work in IT, yet you needed to be at the PC to find out this info?