Scam Alert: Spread the word

phogan

I would like to inform you all of a scam that I was made aware of today. While visiting my parents house, my mother told me of an unsolicited phone call she received. The person on the phone asked her if her internet connection was slow and if so could she go to her laptop and follow his instruction to change the windows settings, which he claimed would speed up her connection. She was busy at the time and also somewhat suspicious, so she asked the person to call back in a few days.
I called eircom technical support and they confirmed that they were aware of the scam, stating that the settings or configuration changes they instruct you to make open windows up for remote connection and essentially allow these people access personal information. With this I asked eircom if they have or would inform they customers of the scam. I was asked to call customer service to check if they had informed their customers or if not request that they do so. Customer Service again confirmed that they were aware of this scam and had posted information on their website, a post that i couldn't actually find. It struck me, that while this was better nothing, how effective was this communication. I know that I don't visit eircom's website unless I want to purchase something or receive technical support, so I nor my parents would see this warning. I suggested to eircom that either an email to their customers or a leaflet attached to every bill might be more effective means of communicating these types of scams. With this I ask you to spread the word in order to prevent vulnerable people from being scammed.
Thanks,
P.

LoLth

a variant on a scam already being discussed:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056042272

closing this thread to keep the discussion in one place but thanks for the heads up anyway