Phone scam

[0007]

Just had the scammers on the phone. Guy rings up from India (what it sounded like) - says from Windows tech team & they've been observing my PC and has viruses on it. Knew my postcode & phone no. even though XD.

He wanted me to switch on PC (already on - obviously not seen by his monitoring!) and presumably login to somewhere (didn't get that far). I asked him what my IP address was - but couldn't tell me that for security reasons. Feeling a bit bored so thought I'd have a bit of sport a la recent Youtube scammer's bluff: kept the guy talking for a while with mindless answers which he seemed to lap up. Then told him he was through to Police HQ and call was being recorded and had been traced. Wasn't sure what to do about this so he consulted with his colleague. There then followed about 15 seconds-worth of sheer panic and confusion in his voice before the line went off.

I suppose the poor sod was only trying to make a dishonest buck but I found this more therapeutic for me than getting angry. Feel sorry for other people who could easily be taken in by this.

Makes a change from the charts I suppose.

 

[blind_eye]

Hearing more and more stories on this type of social engineering. They are now trying to not just get you to go to a website and get infected but install the backdoor software yourself. A good write up on it here, worth a read.

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=10912

Btw, glad to hear you had some fun with them. My mother had a similar incident but advised that her son worked in information security, they promptly hung up at that point hehe.

 

[daroth]

Apparently there is a "hacker" in Los Angeles who has been doing something similar to this but targeted only women. He would somehow make them download a software that would enable him to have control over their webcams. He then told them that something was wrong internally with their computer so they should put it near steam, such as in the bathroom while they were showering. Then this pervert proceeded to watch these women take showers.

It is amazing what people can do these days.

 

[tomorton]

Apparently there is a "hacker" in Los Angeles who has been doing something similar to this but targeted only women. He would somehow make them download a software that would enable him to have control over their webcams. He then told them that something was wrong internally with their computer so they should put it near steam, such as in the bathroom while they were showering. Then this pervert proceeded to watch these women take showers.

It is amazing what people can do these days.

You mean, it's amazing what YOU will believe these days.

 

[anley]

Anyone that calls you with a scare story is a scammer, there's a 99% chance of that.

Anyone that calls you with a scare story and asks you to get out your debit/credit card is a scammer, 100% chance of that, no ifs, no buts.

Everyone, and especially the older generation, the sooner you all realise it's a bad, bad world out there the better you'll be. Plus, you won't get scammed.

 

[mattboffey]

Yes i have heard this too, i completely agree with anley

 

[timsk]

Excellent 007!

I had the exactly same thing a few weeks back, but didn't have the presence of mind to think of anything like as amusing as your little ruse. Hats off to you sir! The best I could come up with when he told me I had a problem was to ask him which of the 4 computers in the house was affected. Was it the brand new one less than a week old, or the ancient Packard Bell (now retired and boxed up in the attic). He couldn't answer that, so I suggested he phoned me back when he'd worked it out. Needless to say, I never heard from him again.
Tim.

 

[stopdownlimitup]

Apparently there is a "hacker" in Los Angeles who has been doing something similar to this but targeted only women. He would somehow make them download a software that would enable him to have control over their webcams. He then told them that something was wrong internally with their computer so they should put it near steam, such as in the bathroom while they were showering. Then this pervert proceeded to watch these women take showers.

It is amazing what people can do these days.

Targeting women is understanable as they probably wouldnt know the difference. This is terible though. Its scary to think that someone can be watching you right now through your built in camera!

 

[PualoP]

Father in law fell for this one. Had to reformat his hard drive/re-install windows but still wasn't happy. He insisted he got a new pc because his old one was still infected by that 'brown dirty *******'

 

[roarson]

father in law fell for this one. Had to reformat his hard drive/re-install windows but still wasn't happy. He insisted he got a new pc because his old one was still infected by that 'brown dirty *******'

bummer!

 

[bedsit]

Have you received a call from George?

Fonejacker - Monies - YouTube