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Microsoft Customers Hit With New Wave of Fake Tech Support Calls
rjmarvin writes "A new surge of callers posing predominately as Microsoft technicians are attempting and sometimes succeeding in scamming customers, convincing them their PCs are infected and directing them to install malware-ridden software or give the callers remote access to the computer. The fraudsters also solicit payment for the fake services rendered. This comes only a year after the FTC cracked down on fake tech support calls, charging six scam operators last October."
In fairness, this has nothing at all to do with Microsoft, other than most people have it, and most people aren't really tech savvy.
This is just social engineering. Some guys calls up, claims to be from "tech support" or "the Windows Service Provider" and tells you a little techno-babble that sounds scary.
They don't actually have any information about you, and if pressed couldn't even tell you your IP address or even your name -- it's just a blanket approach.
But then they tell you to follow some steps to give them access to your computer, and they make some mumbling about how bad it is and attempt to either steal your files, or convince you that you need to buy some extra services.
A friends father in law got scammed with this a few years ago, and my friend was somewhat livid because he'd explicitly told them about such scams and to hang up on anybody who is telling you that. But people don't know that Microsoft doesn't really have your phone number and aren't monitoring your system.
If you know that 80% of everyone is running Windows, and most of them don't really have a good understanding of what's going on, all you think is some friendly guy is contacting you to solve problems you didn't even know you had. It's just like spam, hit enough people and some fraction will fall for it.
I've actually spent the last 5+ years explaining to my parents how to spot a scam, why they should never trust someone who calls them, and to be generally skeptical of such things. I've managed to turn my parents into somewhat skeptical, and a lot more street smart people by hammering home some of this stuff. But I had a great aunt who was a lot more trusting and got scammed several times.
And since every time someone tries to implement a Do Not Call list, the lobbyists cry "but what about our business model" and the protections get weakened to the point of being meaningless.
And since everyone can fake their phone number (which to me is a huge part of the problem) people see something on their call display and believe it. Which means some douchebag is whateverthefuckistan can call you and look like anything they want to, and the phone companies and the companies who believe it's their right to call you exploit that.
I've actually set my Panasonic cordless phone to say "Unknown caller id means hang up", "Private caller means hang up". I still get stuff that gets through (when you see a local number and hear a long distance ring) -- but I start out with the assumption that I don't trust incoming callers.
But getting everyone to understand how these scams work is hard. Getting people to overcome a belief that others are honest and good takes work.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.