A quarter of web users hit by tech support scam

Common sense

If you're stupid enough to do what someone tells you to when they cold call you then you deserve what you get. The same thing with cold calls and emails regarding banking details and such - if you hand them over then it's your own soft fault!

By everton2004 on 15 Nov 2010

Old trick

I had a cold call like this back in 2006. I pretended to go along with the guy for a while then told him I was going to call the police. Funnily enough he hung up fairly sharpish after that. It's a fairly crude trick and anyone with an ounce of IT nous should see right through it. The trouble is 90% of people don't bother to educate themselves about how PCs and the internet work, and they find themselves getting unstuck as a result. I'm of half a mind to say they only have themselves to blame, but the truth is PCs in 2010 are enormously complex machines and a lot of effort has gone into hiding that complexity from the casual user.

By flyingbadger on 15 Nov 2010

I'd quite like to get one of these calls, I think everything would come unstuck when they asked me to "open the Start menu", having a household of UNIX machines may throw them somewhat :P

By forquare1 on 15 Nov 2010

Common sense isn't always that common

In order to stay safe online, the best way is to employ common sense; if a site or link appears to lack legitimacy then do not click on it. If somebody calls you offering anti-virus services; decline the offer and verify the company online. Please read my blog with more tips here: http://bit.ly/btlpTR

By Juliette_msc on 15 Nov 2010

Education, education, education

It's to do with just thinking; "Hello, is that Mr Jones? This is Bob from your local garage. Your car needs fixing, it'll cost £150." Nobody would would they? People need to rove the distinction between online and offline and all sorts of problems like this would be eliminated. Phishing scams wouldn't work, malware writers would find it more difficult to get their rubbish installed etc etc. I'm constantly banging on about this to my father, who is not daft by any stretch, but it just doesn't sink in. It's all about education. What we need is for a high-visibility, quality publication to start a media campaign. Anyone?...

By dk2k1uk on 15 Nov 2010

should have read remove the distinction^

By dk2k1uk on 15 Nov 2010

Small suggestion

A very basic first step would be to sign up to "anonymous call reject" on your landline so at least you can get the caller's number and then if in any doubt you can look up the number against a scammers database.

By craigcockburn on 18 Nov 2010

Unfortunately it's easy to hide a landline number when calling while calls through private exchanges don't leave a number. Surely making this impossible would relieve the problem as well as many nuisance calls?
But the big question is why the law enforecement agencies have done nothing -far more important than hounding casual file-sharers and harmless voyeurs!
The victims were gullible but maybe the protection of the naive is one of the marks of a civilized society?

By Walsallian on 18 Nov 2010

Credit card companies partially to blame

What's amazing about this scam is that the criminal accept MASTERCARD and VISA. A friend of mine was stung by these scammers and the credit card companies actually tried to defend them and not issue a refund. A few choice words, a reminder of their obligations as the credit providers for these criminals, and the distance selling regulations soon had the refund on the way.

Credit card companies need to be taken to task on this as well as they should be vetting the companies allowed to use their services.

By jroche3 on 18 Nov 2010

Hiding behind WEP?

The scam call I recieved perported to be from the Windows Experience Program and came up as an international call. The guy wanted me to grant remote access to my machine so he could install his software. I told him I had a hardware firewall (true) & didn't know how to grant access through it (false). The guy didn't miss a beat & went straight into the "give me your credit card details & I'll post the software" spiel.
Local Police showed no interest when told about the call.

By xe51o on 18 Nov 2010

Users don't think

Most users see their PC the way they see this TV and microwave. They push a button, it lights up and they're entertained. It's the equivalent of handing your 14 year old the keys to the car with no teaining in driving then being surprised when they trash the gearbox or wrap it around a tree.

By stephenbooth_uk on 18 Nov 2010

Windows Error Log

We have been warning our customers at www.AiredaleComputers.com for months about a scam that's caught a couple of them, involving a call from a bogus Microsoft technical support where they indicate a problem highlighted to them by your own ISP. They get you to open the windows error log file to prove your PC has errors (most PCs have errors listed in there) and then get you to allow remote access so they can fix it free of charge. Then, next time your system is idling, they are in and snooping out your personal info and bank details.

By KeithACR on 18 Nov 2010

Not that subtle!

When its an obvious Asian voice speaking poor English on a satellite phone line it makes one suspicious! This happened twice to me over a week, and when I asked to speak to someone I could understand better they rang off.
Of course not all are that obvious but you need to keep your wits about you.

By novice8 on 18 Nov 2010

Aimed at a niche

The thing is they dont expect to convert Techy readers into belfief and cash. They are aiming at an ill informed but sizeable percentage of users who dont really understand there PC or the internet.

The solution to this scam is government advertising on TV and Radio, and for all you local guru types to help the less informed.

An article in your local press or community newsletter usually reaches the type of people that get hit by this type of thing, Grandparents and the like.

By Gindylow on 18 Nov 2010

Found them out easily...

When they called me many months back I had some immediate questions for them:
Q: How do you know this?
A: Received report from Microsoft experience (feedback)service.

Immediately suspicious as I don't submit those, and even if I do they're anonymous!

Q: So what's my PC's IP address? What version of Windows am I running?
A: Ummmmmm... I don't have that information sir.
Response: then you're obviously talking ###### so #### off.

I then warned my less cynical, more vulnerable friends etc. i.e. everyone in my whole address book, facebook, linked-in contacts

By CoxJul69 on 18 Nov 2010

COLD CALL SCAMMING

Just received a call from a man called 'George' who said he was ringing about my computer because it was downloading lots of viruses and other malicious software. 'George' did have a difficult accent to understand properly, and when asked who he worked for replied "Windows". So, I asked him the usual questions:

How do you know my computer is downloading viruses, etc.?, to which he replied because he had been monitoring my activity.

Do you know who you are talking to? That one stumped him!!!

He claimed that he would have to cut off my internet access if I did not allow him to 'fix' the problem remotely. To which I replied "Go ahead!" and then put the phone down.

It may be coincidental, but 5 days ago my internet suddenly stopped working, so after a few hours I phoned my ISP, or rather a call-centre in India. Where after going through their script and running the router wizard software, I was informed that my router had reset itself to the factory default and I would need a new login ID and password. The line then went dead.

After phoning them for a second time, and going through the same tests, I was informed that my current login ID and password were not being recognised by the server (big surprise!), and that the problem would therefore have to be escalated, and that I would receive a phone call the following day between 11am and 1pm.

When I awoke the next morning, lo and behold I was able to connect to the internet, using my normal login ID and password, and I never did receive a phone call.

However, a few days later someone did try to phone, but I was engaged and so they left a message on my answer machine, saying that they would phone me the next day betweeen 7pm and 9pm, needless to say, they didn't phone back, and my internet connection is still working.

Is it possible that someone at the call centre passed my details to the scammer? Who knows?

By derfel on 24 Nov 2010