Fell for telephone scam

[Tome]

Unfortunately my old man was fooled into the Microsoft telephone scam. Basically he allowed them remote access to his computer and ended up paying money to remove "viruses" from his computer.

Now I cannot be 100% sure of what else they accessed but I'm concerned that programmed may have been installed which could cause future security/fraudulent problems.

What advice do you have? I have obvious got him to change passwords and dealt with the banks but in terms of the computer itself, is there any risk in connecting it back to the Internet and if so how do I sort this out?


Thanks in advance

Sorry for the spelling!! I'm using my iPhone

[officemanager]

Only one sure way for piece of mind, reformat the hard drive and reload the software...this way you eradicate any potential threat you might have.

[Comp_Pro]

I got a phone call too, they said they were calling from "windows" and I said "calling from where?" They replied "Windows, sir" and I said "I know this is a scam, and I am recording this" then the guy said "Well, record this!" and he hung up. Lols.

But I would suggest you do a full system scan with spybot search and destroy

[Card]

I have never heard of windows (lol) telephone scams. So where did they get your phone numbers...? From a phone book or something?

[The_Lucas]

Originally Posted by Card

I have never heard of windows (lol) telephone scams. So where did they get your phone numbers...? From a phone book or something?

Probably. Or online somehow.
I just can't believe people would fall for this kind of crap...

[Jules2408]

[QUOTE=Tome;1092406]Unfortunately my old man was fooled into the Microsoft telephone scam. Basically he allowed them remote access to his computer and ended up paying money to remove "viruses" from his computer.

Now I cannot be 100% sure of what else they accessed but I'm concerned that programmed may have been installed which could cause future security/fraudulent problems.

What advice do you have? I have obvious got him to change passwords and dealt with the banks but in terms of the computer itself, is there any risk in connecting it back to the Internet and if so how do I sort this out?


Thanks in advance.

/QUOTE]

A program has been installed on his machine and running anti-virus software of any kind will not necessarily pick it up. If you do not detect the program(s) that were loaded under this scam (and you probably will not)then IMHO you need to clean the hard drive and re-load the operating system and other safe software. If you save a bunch of files (assuming you have files you want to save) and then re-load them you may well be re-introducing the scam program again as it may be attached to one of them.

Originally Posted by Card

I have never heard of windows (lol) telephone scams. So where did they get your phone numbers...? From a phone book or something?

The majority of homes in western countries have at least one PC connected. These particular scammers just phone up published residential phone numbers at random and take it from there. (They don't worry about the minority of people they contact who really have no home computer/internet connection). They don't even need a published phone book as they can access any of the many telephone directory internet sites (like anyone can) or purchase CDs of residential phone numbers from suppliers of these products (which enables them to run sorts to efficiently target particular residential locations (especially the more affluent neighbourhoods)).

On top of that there are plenty of "for sale" web sites where people provide their contact phone numbers and general location. These scammers will also use these and other internet sources for potential "marks" to attempt their con.

These guys want access to your bank accounts, credit card details and your identity (enabled by you giving them access to your computer) and if you fall for their con their payoff can be very lucrative - for the price of a few phone calls.

[officemanager]

Originally Posted by The_Lucas

Probably. Or online somehow.
I just can't believe people would fall for this kind of crap...

You be surprised how many people fall for the scams/phishing not being tech savvy, especially with older generation.
There are lot of gullible people in this world!!!

[The_Lucas]

Originally Posted by officemanager

You be surprised how many people fall for the scams/phishing not being tech savvy, especially with older generation.
There are lot of gullible people in this world!!!

But man, that's just scary.

And a lot of old(er) people I know are real cautious and suspicious of everything when using their computer. Many of them aren't that gullible and will in fact basically say they're smarter than the IT people.

[JCB]

if you want to be 100% sure you will need to format and re-install windows and all your apps.

Failing that, make sure your anti-virus is up to date and run a full system scan, then download adware and scan your system with that as well. You could then try using some free online virus scans, search google for them