65,000 Complaints Later, Microsoft Files Suit Against Tech Support Scammers

MojoKid (1002251) writes Tech support scammers have been around for a long time and are familiar to most Slashdot readers. But last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had issued lawsuits against several culprits responsible for tech support scams. Now Microsoft has announced that it too is going after tech support scammers. According to the company, more than 65,000 complaints have been made about tech support scams since May of this year alone. Bogus technicians, pretending to represent Microsoft, call the house offering fake tech support and trick people into paying hundreds of dollars to solve a non-existent issue. If successful in their ruse, the scammer then gains access to a person's computer, which lets them steal personal and financial information and even install malware. I managed to keep one of these guys on the phone for about 20 minutes while I stumbled through his directions, over and over, "rebooting," pretending to be using Windows, etc; the next one caught on more quickly. Have they called you? If so, how did the call go?

Comments

No, They Haven't Called Me

[Greyfox]

I run a call blocker on my android phone that only allows people in my contacts list through. Keeps the riffraff out -- an endless swarm of poor quality technical recruiters, phone soliciters, scammers and Comcast salespeople. Best $3 I ever spent.

Re:No, They Haven't Called Me

[Ol Olsoc]

Taking that logic to the extreme we survived without electricity too.

Not my point. trying to take my point to the extreme would be saying someone panics if they can't see a functional electrical outlet.

I mean seriously, I've had more than one occasion where a person has become very antsy because we were in an area with no cell coverage while traveling. "What if someone needs to get hold of me?"

Re:No, They Haven't Called Me

[Charliemopps]

Until a local hospital calls you to let you know your kids got a broken leg...

I've seen people drive themselves to distraction with your logic. They start sweating when their phone gets to one bar, and refuse to go anywhere with no cell service. Or drive through long highway tunnels. And yet....... somehow we've been able to survive all this time without everyone having instant access to us.

Talk about your first world problems.

First world problems? If you've never been to the 3rd world, you're not allowed to use that line. It just makes you sound like an idiot.

I've been to the 3rd world, specifically Africa. Everyone has cellphones. EVERYONE.
People that don't have homes, cars, a bed... have a cellphone.
Why? So they can keep in contact with their family, in case of emergency. Most people have 2 phones, or at least 2 sim cards so they can be on 2 networks at once, just so they don't miss a call.

You find booths like this on every street corner:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

I had better cell coverage there than I do in the states.

Some answers to the know-it-all comments:

[CFD339]

MS didn't sue earlier because it's really hard to find a legal entity to sue. When you get one of these calls, the thing calling you is not directly attached to a land line. It's a software pbx system that may be running on a compromised machine in some part of the world. The call only gets connected to the person you talk to after you connect and the system determines you may be a real person willing to talk to someone. The calls get routed through compromised voip service providers, compromised pbx systems, or termination lines leased with false id and credit cards. By the time the provider knows what's happening, tens of thousands of calls have been made and the front end system just moves to another provider. As to "opting out" -- only legitimate telemarketing organizations bother with do not call lists. These asshats just random dial. It's cheaper.

To figure out who to sue, you have to participate in the scam long enough to have an actual transaction processed and then follow the money -- but that's not so simple now. Most of these particular kinds of scams don't accept payment at the telecenter you're talking to. They just install the ransomware on the pc. Then once you're already compromised you have to pay someone else -- through a web site, a wire payment, or some other mechanism that's much easier to hide than just a credit card transaction.