We just received another call from a client of ours reporting that “Microsoft” had called her and told her that her computer was infected with a virus, and they asked her to allow them to connect into her computer to remove it. Wisely, since she has heard us warn about scams like this, she refused to do it. At that point the person who called her got very agitated and aggressive, and rudely informed her that they were Microsoft, so she had to do what they told her to do. She refused again, and asked that they e-mail her to prove that they were from Microsoft. They pushed her again to let them connect in and finally threatened to “shut down her computer” if she didn’t comply. Not exactly the smoothest scam operation I have ever heard of; they are usually much more polite and professional about it. 🙂
Not only was this a scam, but it was one of the worst kinds of scams – much worse than getting a virus. The few cases that we have encountered where someone actually had their bank accounts and credit cards wiped out were all situations where they allowed someone that they did not know to connect in to “fix their computer for them”. We had one case last year where an elderly woman was trying to get help with her HP printer, so she search for HP printer support” on Google. One of the results that popped up claimed to be the official HP support center, so she called the number. They told her that they would be happy to help, and they connected into her computer. A window then popped up on her computer telling her that she had all kinds of virus infections on her system, and they offered to help clean them up. Less than an hour later, after totally fouling up her computer (which is why she brought it to us), they disconnected and left her with an unusable computer.
What she didn’t know at the time was that while the other person was connected in, they were secretly stealing all of her banking and credit card information behind the scenes, most likely with an automated program that worked quietly in the background while they pretended to be fixing her computer. Less than a week later, she discovered that her bank count had been wiped clean, along with her entire life savings.
Please, be extra careful whenever you decide to allow someone else to connect into your computer to help you with anything. PJ Networks uses remote support tools all the time, but we limit our access to just a few of our engineers and we always let the client know in advance that we will be connecting in, unless we are performing after-hours work on a server or a workstation. Don’t get scammed – identity theft is becoming far too common these days, and once that happens, it may take years to recover from the fallout.
This article from Computer Hope provides more information and some additional tips on how to keep from being scammed: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001385.htm
Hackers and identity thieves are getting more aggressive and trickier – let’s be careful out there!
-The PJ Networks Team
