PC support phone scam

[s1nykuL]

Recently I received a telephone call from a company who identified themselves as Internet Control. This was a scam call in an attempt to sell me a PC support contract. They told me that my Windows PC was heavily infected with viruses and that it had sent them messages over the Internet. Fortunately I know a little bit about computers So I played along with them for around 50 minutes.

For those who are interested I wrote about it on my blog:

http://www.propergander.org.uk/properblog/?p=193

[yatesy17]

i get those calls at least once a week its so annoying

[s1nykuL]

i get those calls at least once a week its so annoying

I would like them to call me again so I can follow the scam through all the way to the point of authorising payment for the support. This would give me more information which I could pass on to the authorities.

[yatesy17]

i tend too hang up on them but now thinking that is a good idea too follow it too the payment support part so i can pass to the authorities

[Serra]

When they called my mom they claimed to be from Microsoft and had her open up Event Viewer, then claimed that all the errors were signs of viruses. Really a pretty great scam, as far as they go.

[stangracin3]

when they call me depending on my mood i will either hang up or screw with them for as long as possible till they hang up on me

I told one i still had like 14.8k internet and was waiting for it to download. he eventually figured out i was screwing with him and hung up

[BeepBeep2]

I really want their number so I can play along

[Gamekiller]

You could report them to the cyber police cuz they dun goofed.



I don't see how these scammers can have any honor for themselves..

[s1nykuL]

So Serra, stangracin3, this happens stateside too and not just in the UK. Showing errors in event viewer and claiming them to be the result of viral infection seems to be a typical ploy. Most Windows users are just consumers and are not particularly au fait with the Windows operating system. I would be interested in knowing how many people they actually con with this. Considering that fake AV scams netted 3 men $100 million: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05..._scam_charges/

I really do hope these people call me again, I have now set up an email account especially for them and this time they will not realise that I actually research malware and IT security in general.

I was threatened by them when they realised I ran propergander.org.uk. They intimated that they would hack my box. I am not the most 1337 hacker around, so I accept that they might actually root my server. My server logs don't show anything other than scripted attacks at the moment. They are going to have to be much smarter than that if they do want to compromise my server. My IPTables are very strict and my router is well locked down.