OT: WARNING! TELEPHONE FRAUD ATTEMPT

OBSERVATION: Your experience will be different most especially if you use Win7. OBSERVATION: I could hear, in the background, at least three others making the same kind of "pitches", so this is what i call a "boilerplate" scam. OBSERVATION: I suggest that you DO NOT try either of the programs named below. OBSERVATION: Perhaps it would be advisable to gather as much info as possible by acting stupid; IF POSSIBLE record the whole conversation. Maybe a blog / database can be gathered as a log of this shit for possible action.

Just got a call 3:19 pst on 6/17 from (might be spoofed??) Caller ID (206) 709-2848 "Seattle WA". India accent; intimates my computer has been flagging errors (did not catch this correctly) in the Microsoft system over the past few days, presumably via e-mail. The idiot, (when asked 3 times) was not able to name any kind of e-mail system / software and left the question un-answered. After some fumbling around, he had me download Support-LogMeInRescue.exe which (of course because i use Win2K) failed at certificate recognition. So he had me download and run TeamViewerQS_en.exe which of course failed to run at all. He then tried to guess the OS i was using, so after the XP and Vista guesses he finally asked, and i said Win2K. At this point, he said i had hundreds of malware programs "running" and if i wanted to remove them and "fix" the computer,it would COST ME $110.00 and tried to imply that was my only option. At least, i got from him that the "flags" came from WinXP. Since he had indicated the problems were related to e-mail, all i can deduce is that pissy OE would be tagged as the culprit. Be advised i DO NOT and NEVER have used OE, have it RIPPED out (as much as possible), and furthermore have NEVER used an e-mail client on any OS. To put a cap on that, any e-mail discussions are only when i am using Win2K (which obviously EXCLUDES all other OSes), and i use web-mail. So, when i REFUSED to PAY (naturally) he hung up.

Reply to
Robert Baer
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Den torsdag den 18. juni 2015 kl. 01.11.56 UTC+2 skrev Robert Baer:

I'm not sure you should be allowed to operate a computer if you download and run programs just because some guy on the phone tells you to

That scam has been running for many many years

-Lasse

Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

You have no sense of humor. I play along, then stuff their head up their ass >:-} ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Just this morning, I got a call telling me that I won a FREE cruise to the Bahamas!

Did you actually download and try to run those programs?

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
picosecond timing   precision measurement  
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Reply to
John Larkin

in the right environment it might not be too bad. Reminds me of a live virus test on linux, with the author awarding viruses various numbers of penguins according to how much damage they did. IIRC most scored zero penguins.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

  • I am not an idiot:
1) i was familiar with these programs and others like it, 2) i KNEW they would fail because they were either written for Win7 or have been "upgraded" for Win7.
Reply to
Robert Baer

Yes; i was familiar with them and knew they would fail (being Win7 programs and me using my favorite OS Win2K). That way i did not have to lie and merely state exactly what "response" the programs offered - shakes their faith like crazy.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Precisely! (here it was Win7 progs in a Win2K environment).

Reply to
Robert Baer

*MIGHT* be spoofed? Even the dumbest scammers manage to do that right!

YOU HAD A LUCKY ESCAPE! AT least on Linux or OSX it would be DOA.

Win2k is way less secure than Win7 and most malware will exploit any and all loopholes and security flaws in the OS code some of which date back to Win95. A recent discovery by Google is particularly nasty.

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Generally the best bet is ask them to hold on while you go and get your computer man to talk to them and leave them hanging.

Never trust anyone making an unsolicited cold call not even your bank!

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

Well that ended in the middle of a paragraph that 'made perfect sense', not.

BE AFWADE BE VEWWY VEWWY AFWADE!

If they were Really Smart, they'd provide Exploitation Code so we could all try it out to verify its actual existence.

OH GOD FORGIVE ME.

Reply to
rev.11d.meow

On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 22:12:31 -0700, Robert Baer Gave us:

You ARE an absolute idiot for running any such executable, and exposing your system to being hacked. It ain't about mere email spam or whatever scam you *think* you escaped.

Your post title says it all. You take stupid to an all new low. You will still not displace Larkin for the bottom spot on that totem pole however.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 22:16:24 -0700, Robert Baer Gave us:

Your "favorite OS" was hacked years ago, and you are so stupid to still be using it online, much less running exploit executables. Much less running *KNOWN* exploit executables and thinking you slid under the scope of their attacks.

You are a true idiot.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

yeah?

And that time I tested the brand-x anti-virus AFTER DOWNLOADING ALL THE UPD ATES CURRENT AS OF THAT NIGHT and LO I am infect with Mailissa or whatever it was I had sent a copy home to test my fancy-schmancy anti-virus program which TOLD ME IT WAS CURRENT AS THE LAST HOUR, so there is no reason....

but noooooooooooooo

there's huge difference between what it called Live-Update and Current Down load

The Live-Update package REQUIRED for some dumb-ass reason an extra day of t esting before it WAS MADE CURRENT.

So, DO NOT TRUST YOUR ANTI-VIRUS VENDOR EITHER!!!

they all suck ass.

oh, and THEY MAKE THE VIRII FOR YOU TO BE AFRAID OF IN EFFORT TO TEST THEIR WORK, so there OS USERS!

You Are All Going To Suffer The Ill Effects Of Somebody's BRILLIANCE At Som e Point, usually your own, if My History speaks at all.

Mailissa did zero damage.

I Use HAIKU!

Reply to
rev.11d.meow

A fair proportion of modern Windows programs run perfectly well on W2K - you have no guarantee that it would fail.

Even if you run Linux, you have to be careful about trying this sort of thing - if you've got Wine installed, the Windows program might run flawlessly.

And if you don't /expect/ the program to run, and don't /want/ the program to run, then why on earth would you try to run it at all?

Reply to
David Brown

We've had a number of these, both at home and at work. My wife told them she would give them the IT expert in the house, then passed the phone on to our (then) five-year-old.

They had a tough time trying to talk to my mother-in-law, as she explained that her computer ran Linux Mint, not Windows.

And when they called me at work, the conversation went something like this:

(Heavily accented Indian, with a USA number phoning me here in Norway, starts off with the "I'm phoning from Microsoft" line...)

Me: Ah, you are trying to trick me into downloading malware on my computer.

Him: Yes, yes.

Me: It's a scam to try and con money out of me.

Him: Yes, yes.

Me: Do you know how much this phone call is costing you, phoning my mobile here in Norway?

Him: Yes, yes.

Me: Do you mind if I leave you waiting for a while to run up your phone bill?

Him: Yes, yes.

I left him hanging - he waited several minutes before hanging up.

Reply to
David Brown

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Reply to
Adrian Tuddenham

I used to contact my credit card company to rag on them for sending me emails with links back to their web site. I explained that this is what phishing emails look like and they replied that the email II received was a valid email and not phishing and that I can always call to verify an email is not a phishing attempt. I explained to them that I didn't want to have to call them every time I get a stinking email. It kinda defeats the purpose of the email.

A similar phone scam was reported in detail in c.a.e a while back I seem to recall, but a bit more sophisticated. Then a couple of weeks later I got the same call. Having read about it I knew what I could do and what to avoid to prevent getting in trouble. Those guys would get you to let them drive through the remote support facility. Then they would show you a system folder and try to get you to believe all these files were viruses. Once they figure out you are on to them they wipe out a bunch of system files and hang up. I never let them have control of my machine. He did, but in a virtual machine.

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Rick
Reply to
rickman
[...]

When I played along they just called up the windows event log then tried to make out the warnings were viruses and I should buy their AV solution for $120.

On another occasion they did do the remote access thing, but they just use a commonly available tool to do it (not malware in itself). They got me to download a legit remote control application - Logmein I think. Of course I had to start up and snapshot a windows VM first...

I get about a call per week so I just hang up now. My mother often gets one soon after, which does p*** me off I have to say.

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John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

  • That site has a fair number of suspect "download me" garbage links; so why trust it?
Reply to
Robert Baer

YOU are the idiot! THEY DID _NOT_ RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply to
Robert Baer

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