Slashdot Mirror
The Unstoppable 'Tech Support' Scam
Barence writes "A pernicious new type of scam is targeting British computer owners, reports PC Pro. The con is both fiendishly clever and ridiculously simple. The fraudster cold-calls the customer and tells them that Microsoft has detected a virus on their PC, then invites them to download a piece of remote-assistance software. No doubt reassured by the lines of indecipherable code flitting across their screen, the caller assures the customer they can make the virus vanish – but first, of course, they want payment. £185 to be precise. The spoof site behind the scam is approved by McAfee's Site Advisor and bears Microsoft logos, something which both companies have failed to act upon. Meanwhile, an assortment of British regulators have said there is nothing they can do to stop it."
God, there are some real scumbags in the world.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
You can only do so much to save the end-user from themselves.
How dumb do you have to be to fall for this one? The kind of people falling for these must be same ones who fall for the "suspicious activity in your bank account" scam.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Summation 2
The only thing you need to stop this unstoppable scam is for people to be unwilling to shell out a significant sum of money to some c**t who calls them up out of the blue.
I mean, £185, when you didn't know there was anything wrong with your computer in the first place? You'd need to have more money than brains to shell out for that.
What is the difference between this and the tech support offered by most companies?
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Perhaps they could get the people who have been scammed to report the telephone number and work with the teleco's to find out where the scammers are hiding?
This worked in my city when Scammers would steal wallets and purses and then call later claiming to be the police, and to meet them in "unmarked white police vans".
It's true, you can't fix stupid - but the smarter ones can... you know... at least provide useful information aiding in the capture.
This does provide yet another argument against the camp which thinks that understanding the tools they use is not important.
The message I get from all this is that computers really aren't ready for prime time. They're more like automobiles from the first decade of the 1900s.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I get calls once or twice per month that start out like this. I usually just yell "NOOOOO" like I'm dying into the phone and promptly hang up. It's good for a chuckle.
But seriously, warn all your normie friends about this. My parents were surprised such a thing would be a scam, and my mom's sister even got popped for $90 by these people. Of course, after I told her about it and she tried to call them back, the number was "no longer in service".
Education about the scam is the only way to avoid it.
... and tells them that Microsoft has detected a virus on their PC
Believing that Microsoft knows or cares if your machine has a virus is flat out ignorant. Being okay with the idea that Microsoft could monitor you is even worse.
Never mind shelling out hundreds to an stranger for doing nothing -- how many people are really so dense?
How exactly does open source prevent social engineering scams?
Something about "an educated populace being the best defence against tyranny."
Then apply this to corporate interests.
Profit.
I believe what they meant by that comment is that there is nothing regulators can do to stop people for falling for social engineering scams. In what way do you presume them to be able to do so?
Generating $280US or £185 in a matter of minutes without much technical skill is a pretty good payout. Not many jobs pay that well outside of the CEO class. These guys could easily be making $8000/day. At that rate they could make over $2Milllion in US dollars in a year just treating it like an 8 hour per day, 5 days per week job. I have to put more creativity and effort into my job and don't get anywhere near that kind of payback.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
How so?
People still don't understand cars and if ANYTHING goes wrong with them, they don't know why.
Consider, also, that a computer's software is custom to each person as they add in more software packages and settings.
That's roughly akin to someone buying a car and having custom parts put on without knowing much of what they do. They still have no clue when something goes wrong.
How many people can do much more maintenance on their car than fixing a flat tire? That's not much different than someone knowing how to run an antivirus once in awhile, imo.
Just like the poster you're replying to was saying, it is important to understand the tools we use so we know how the things we use work.
If we don't understand that then we're just as much in the dark be in computer trouble or car trouble.
So you think an automobile scam along similar lines today wouldn't work? Get the list of automobile type ownership from the licensing authority (most sell this information, or its easily available elsewhere), cold call the owner and inform them that a voluntary safety notice has been issued on their vehicle, would they like priority booking for just $99 over the phone...
Uninformed people are still uninformed, regardless of how long the technologies been around.
Are you implying that there are no dishonest garage-men who charge $700 for replacing a $35 part? And that there are no car enthusiasts who spend their free time tinkering?
To counter with an example from the real world just look at the malware infections of people installing screensavers for ubuntu. Where was the magic open source pixie dust to stop them. Oh yeah it doesn't exist.
and then after six months your machine crawls to a halt unless you give them more money for the next version
Six months? Well, that eliminates Windows at least. And OSX 10.3-6 have been on a two year cycle. The only OS I know that releases every six months as clockwork is Ubuntu, but I think you're doing it wrong...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Meanwhile, an assortment of British regulators have said there is nothing they can do to stop it.
Yes, there is something that we can do to stop this kind of activity. Find the people who are doing it and kill them. That usually stops it.
We don't need the people who are doing this. They don't contribute anything. They won't be missed by anybody. And if it means that their kids will be growing up without a daddy, well, then kill the kids too. They're only children, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Save the future generations grief.
While it sounds extreme and tongue-in-cheek, it's not. I realize that it feels horrible to order and facilitate the extra-judicial execution of financial criminals. But it is a feeling that decreases with each new asshole that we stuff into the wood chipper. It's good for the computer community. It gives faith to the general people that we can police our own industry. We 'take out the trash'. Gangsters do this kind of thing all the time. Plus there are too many people in the world already. These jerks won't be missed.