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Questions Linger After ISP Blocks TeamViewer Over Fraud Fears (sophos.com)
Last Wednesday, for no apparent reason, the TeamViewer remote desktop application stopped working on the network of one of the UK's largest ISPs, TalkTalk. The apparent reason, as the investigation has found, are some scammers in India who have been abusing the application to make money. An anonymous reader shares a report: It's a popular application with remote support professionals and power users alike and so support forums soon filled with complaints from perplexed users who noticed that access was possible with 4G and some TalkTalk business connections but not home broadband. By Thursday, journalists dragged the truth out of the company that it had "blocked a number of applications including TeamViewer," which led to a joint statement confirming this on TeamViewer's website: TeamViewer and TalkTalk are in extensive talks to find a comprehensive joint solution to better address this scamming issue. We now know (as some suspected at the time) that the block was connected to abuse of TeamViewer by criminals based in India who had been using it as part of a tech support scam targeting TalkTalk customers. The BBC reported on this two days before the block, including the disturbing claim that the criminals had been able to quote stolen customer account data to make scam calls sound more convincing.
As much flak as American ISPs get for their noncompetitive and morally bereft behavior, we do need to be reminded that things could generally be much worse. There is nothing wrong with pressuring large businesses (especially those with government-sanctioned monopolies) to change their shameful ways, but I do occasionally breathe a sigh of relief that, at least for the moment, our biggest concerns (outside of government spying) are speed, price, and general availability of service.
It seems almost commonplace for websites or services to get blocked at an ISP level in the UK, and that fact alone seems more frightening than any increase in price that Comcast could throw at me.
The internet is always used by internet scammers. If you completely block the internet, it will eliminate all those scams!
Facebook is probably used for more fraud than TeamViewer.
The words of an expert in the field.
I answered in a very simple-minded voice, and told "Paul," after he explained that they're tracking all sorts of malicious traffic coming from my computer that I liked it that way. When he tried to confirm that statement, I told him I liked to share. By that point I was far enough off of his script that he gave up and hung up the phone.
I think next time I'm going to sound all cagey and worried that people were finding out about the kinds of malicious scripts I've been writing.
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FFS you moron.
'These scams are extensive, they all use phone calls, both cellular and land line, Blocking peoples access to the phone system is the only way to get the phone companies to sit the fuck up and listen and do something about it'
'These scams are extensive, they all target Windows users, Making the home use of Windows illegal is the only way to get Microsoft to sit the fuck up and listen and do something about it'
Probably over your head, but getting the idea?
Teamviewer is NOT the problem here - the problem appears to be that the ISP has had account data stolen, that is then being used to scam their members - and they are reacting by blaming one of the tools being used, almost certainly to cloud their own responsibility.
Yes, these scams are common and ugly. The ISP however could EASILY be blocking IP ranges of teamviewer, not just all access - ESPECIALLY as in this case it appears the scammers have data the ISP has lost.....
If TeamViewer is not going to deal with the scamming problem, take it to the next level and sever the connection.
faceplam.
The only reason they are using Teamviewer is that it works pretty good. The scammers could switch tomorrow to another remote support tool. Or a VNC based tool with a preconfigured reverse connection; hosted from anywhere, connecting to anywhere... they could even keep calling it teamviewer... they're scammers so honesty isn't a pre-req.
Teamviewer is not a 'hacking tool' and it is not a 'scamming tool' any more than a 'telephone' is a scamming tool. Or the TalkTalk ISP itself is. Blocking teamviewer because people are using it as part of the scam would be almost as idiotic as blocking these customers from reaching their banks. "Well if their bank isn't going to deal with the scamming problem, we'll just stop letting people connect to their banks online.. "
Better still TalkTalk should cut off the customers TalkTalk internet access -- that's where the real problem is anyway. Since TalkTalk apparently lost a bunch of customer data / records allowing the scammers to sound a lot more convincingly like they are calling from talktalk. Whoops.
I'm curious what you think Teamviewer should do about the problem. Or Microsoft. Or apple (because they aren't immune from a scam like this...) or even your grandma you stuck on linux mint or is the fact that your grandma can get scammed by someone pretending to work for TalkTalk while running linux mint somehow Torvalds fault?
Teamviewer (and VNC) run on all three platforms, and as long as the scammer doesn't say he's calling from "Windows" but instead is calling from their (Actual) ISP TalkTalk...