IT Security Lesson

[_michaelm]

All,

Please see the excellent 'play-along' article/video from a malwarebytes security researcher who was lucky enough to be 'identified' with a broken computer... we all know how that goes.

Anyhow, please educate/share this with as many non-technical people as you can to try and minimise the damage done by these vengeful scammers.

What happens if you play along with a Microsoft 'tech support' scam? (Wired UK)

 

[~mr mixx~]

I know this guy was just playing along with the scam, but at the end i would have chewed that guy out for deleting my documents.

I wish that the guy who made that video was a hacker, and gave that fake Tech guy a taste of his own medicine.

 

[_michaelm]

I wish that the guy who made that video was a hacker, and gave that fake Tech guy a taste of his own medicine.

Lots of people may wish that, but it would still be illegal. The correct approach is to try and get as much information as possible (which he did attempt in a couple of segments) and identify the individuals so that law enforcement can take action.

 

[jmacavali]

Well first, it was a virtual machine - thus the reason there were no files in his my docs folder. And second, they just deleted them, not permanet delete so they are in the recycle bin.

However they did a good job up to that point concinving him he needed help.

 

[root]

I know someone who fell for this.

After paying someone to "fix" their computer, the end of the scam is actually that a virus is installed that makes the computer run even more slowly, they'll call again offering to "fix" it again...

 

[_michaelm]

I know someone who fell for this.

After paying someone to "fix" their computer, the end of the scam is actually that a virus is installed that makes the computer run even more slowly, they'll call again offering to "fix" it again...

Me too, I just wanted to bring it to people's attention to spread the word - these things aren't new, but they certainly are successful