windows support scam and bank account emptying

[singlespeed]

My folks have had a couple of phone calls recently, with the caller saying they are from 'Windows support center' and they are phoning about a fault with their computer.

The first time was about a month ago and happened to be the day after their wireless router disconnected itself, I rebooted the router and everything was fine. However, the woman with an Indian accent was insistant that they had a problem. Fortunately my mum hung up after saying everything was fine.

In the past two weeks, they have had two further calls, again insisting that there is a serious problem and they need to open up files on their PC, which makes me thing they are going to try an remotely operate the PC then plant something nasty or sell overpriced software to cure a perfectly fine machine....

looking into it now, pulled up this>> https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/mar/01/microsoft-virus-scam-continues
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After mentioning the above, they also mentioned about my Nephews Grand parents close call...

They received a call from BT, saying there would be line works localy over the next week and the phone line may be down briefly.

A day or so later, he saw a BT van and a guy working on one of the telephone poles, but thought nothing about a fully marked van and engineer due to the previous call.

A day later, he received a call from his bank, to review his account details. Being as banks never ask for details over the phone, they asked him to call the number on the back of his bank card... So he knew he was actualy talking to the bank.

He called the number on his card, but afterwards he had second thoughts about how much info he had given out. So he went into his local branch in person and said about the call

£4000 had already been withdrawn and £12000 was pending but held.

Obviously, he wasn't talking to his bank, he was actualy talking to the person who had diverted his phone line

Lloyds called in the ploice and fortunately the gang were caught so he got his money back

 

[Daveyb133]

We hear about this at work all the time never to the extent of diverting the phone line, thats proper hardcore. It's normally a person saying they are from Microsoft, we've found a virus, pay us to remove it and then they just wipe the account clean.

The annoying thing is, the companies are now claiming to be the company I work for and it's not fair at all.

I think it's really had that they pray on the naive and vulnerable too.

One of my friends got back at a company like that when they rang his mum and dad. He got them to remote into a pc full of virus' and infected them. The virus' were carefully selected for this pc

 

[singlespeed]

One of my friends got back at a company like that when they rang his mum and dad. He got them to remote into a pc full of virus' and infected them. The virus' were carefully selected for this pc

I like that idea. One of the lads I used to work with collected virusses as a hobby. I imagine he could have some fun with one of his pets and his test laptop

 

[Sam]

I'm always weary when I get calls like that. I was scammed once by a chip and pin device.. Basically a person dressed as a typical engineer goes into a shop or restaurant or anywhere that uses the chip and pin card readers, poses as a technician who is 'upgrading' the firmware, or repairing it. Most of the checkut staff are too hopeless to realise it's a scam and casually, let the technicians get on with it.

Anyway, once I used my card in burger king (this is going back a year or two!) and the C&P machine was taking ages to authenticate my card.

A few days later, I had an automated voice call from my bank asking me about two payments. It asked me to confirm my identity and date of birth. I was suspicious so went down to my local branch who then called the number that called me and their CSA spoke to the office, turns out the call was genuine. Anyway whilst I was speaking to the call centre, the CSA swiped my card and showed me on the screen the two suspicious payments. Both were for mobile phone networks, one for o2 and the other for Vodafone, at branches in towns that I had never visited!

Since, I have never used my card in Burger King and always pay in cash lol. The bank did say "would you be prepared to give evidence to a court if the offender is found?", but I've not heard anything since, so I'm guessing they're still out there!