"Microsoft" called -Eventvwr scam

jonsnow

Just had a call from a woman with a heavy indian accent claiming to be from a microsoft support team.She very forcefully told me that my computer had downloaded maliscous software from the internet.I said that I seriously doubted that.She then asked if their were a number of computers in the house which used the same internet connection.I said that there were.She started going on about how all the computers would soon crash as they were all connected by the same internet connection.At this point I hung up.

She rang back a few minutes later and was talking to my brother.Her accent is so heavy he barely understood her.But she asked him to put "eventvwr" into his computers runbar which he did.At this point without actually "sending it" he got suspicious and asked her for more details.She said her name was "Florence Walton" (which doesn,t sound like an indian name to me) and she worked for Globalsupportsolutions and her phone number was 1865589324.He could ring and check her out.

Now obviously this is some sort of scam.I don,t know very much about how computer operating systems work but if my brother had sent the eventwr in the runbar what kind of damage could they have done re accessing info, credit cards etc.It seems crazy to me that just by typing that into the runbar some hacker in india could get into my computer.

Secondly is their anything that can be done like telling the garda it fraud squad or the telephone company or is it just a waste of time.Anyway boardsies watch out for these scammers.

Amalgam

There's a mega thread on this already. Worth a read.

boards.ie > Tech > Computers & Technology > Computers & Technology
Weird phone call! "online pc doctor"

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055837564

o1s1n

Best thing to do is to just waste as much of their time as possible.

chin_grin

This has been going on for AGES. There's a huge thread over in Computers.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055837564

And no they can't get any information from you by just telling you to go in to event viewer.

Only if they told you to log on to a site that they can remote in.

Elisabeth Blanctorche

Sounds legitimate to me. She was only trying to help you.

liah

Eventvwr on its own would do nothing, it's just a diagnostic tool. You don't have to worry about it downloading viruses or anything.

But Microsoft will NEVER call your house to tell you something's up with your computer if you have not contacted them first and told them something was wrong. No legitimate company should ever call your house to tell you something's wrong with it. Why? Because no company/business should know what's going on inside your computer - if they do, it means they're spying on your shit. That's not a good thing, in case that isn't clear.

Basically, if you ever get a phone call telling you to get your computer fixed by anyone you don't know, hang up on them. They're scammers, no matter what. There are no exceptions.

chin_grin

Check this guys' reaction.

http://soundcloud.com/hyperviolet/indian-scammer-y-u-ring-me

(from this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72018047)

Retrovertigo

I think at this stage making threads about this in AH should be a bannable offense.

dizzywizlw

Tell them you have a Mac or better yet start speaking german at them.

Celly Smunt

The best thing to do now would be to delete system 32 that's probably where they tracked your details from to contact you,delete system 32 and you'll be anonymous again.

whiteonion

pmcmahon wrote: »

The best thing to do now would be to delete system 32 that's probably where they tracked your details from to contact you,delete system 32 and you'll be anonymous again.

Why are you suggesting that he should do something that would ruin his operating system?

Celly Smunt

whiteonion wrote: »

Why are you suggesting that he should do something that would ruin his operating system?

what are you talking about,it's just the file that holds your phone number