My husband has fallen for the scam whereby a purported member of microsoft telephones ,says there is a virus and asks you to take steps on the computer . He opened Events manager and then clicked on another button. He thinks it was for O.K. The opening screen was displayed and then he was asked what he could see. He replied " nothing"
The caller hung up.
About fifteen minutes later I arrived back and , horrified, switched off the computer.
Thirty minutes later the caller rang back to say that he had been cut off and was told that we were aware it was a scam.
I am not at all computer savvy , have no idea what to do now and would appreciate any advice. I am posting this from another computer. Thanks
I've just had a charming guy from India , I think, telling me I had a problem with my MS computer. I let him prattle on & then informed him I don't have MS. He told me to "Go to hell" :-)
I had a call last week. Caller said he was calling from Microsoft Windows help desk, saying they had identified a problem on my computer. My response was simple, ‘been caught that way before, judging by your accent you are calling from a call centre in Mumbai’. The caller said no, he was calling from Microsoft in Manchester. So I said, give me your name and number, which to my surprise sounded very English, despite his Asian accent, and a Manchester telephone number. I rang off and ‘Googled’ - surprise, surprise various reports on similar scams using Manchester telephone numbers, but I also confirmed that Microsoft do have a base in Manchester but with a number different from the one given to me. So I contacted www.actionfraud.police.uk and reported the call. I have since received a National Crime Reference Number. This particular scam has been going the rounds for some time. I think if everyone receiving a similar call, reported the attempted scam it would be a way of slowing them down, if not stopping them.
I posted this elsewhere but picked up on this forum:
I logged into my bank this morning to pay a guest back his Gite deposit money and this was the first thing that sprang up.
PLEASE BE ALERT 27 Aug 14
A small number of our customers have received phone calls from companies offering to repair or upgrade their computer. These callers then turn out to be fraudsters who install software allowing them to take over your computer and access Internet Banking.
HELP STOP THE FRAUDSTERS
Don't allow someone who calls you unexpectedly to access or install software on your computer.
Don't disclose your Internet Banking password or memorable information to anyone.
We'll never ask you to transfer your money to another account due to fraud or any other issue.
We'll never make an automated phone call asking you to approve a refund into your account.
It has been a while since I had one of these dodgy indian sub continent type accented 'people' phone up but they are obviously still active. "Bugger Off and don't phone me again", is my automatic response. I don't use Windows so they are dead in the water before they start.
I have never had the call here at home, not sure why that it, and I can never figure out how UK companies(scammers) manage to find expats here.
in saying that, I was helping a couple move house, and their phone rang, and they asked me to answer it, and it was this scam... English guy, asked if I had a computer running microsoft. I just replied, "no, we use Ubuntu", and he said thanks and hung up.
You've already seen this, but perhaps, for the benefit of others, I should have mentioned that the System Restore utility can only go back so far. (How far it goes back can be customized, but this is just never done in the real world.) So don't wait too long, or you will get past the point where you had a (relatively) stable system to go back to.
Just how far it can go back depends, but I've generally seen 1 - 2 weeks, but this can be longer, especially if the machine hasn't been switched on.
Far more polite than i was Jane, regards system restore mine doesnt always work or it will only go back to a certain point and nothing alteres the system has been screwed around so much by my step daughter and boyfriend when we were in the uk its just a mess now various so called repair shops have had a go but its always as bad but in other ways when it returns so given it up as a hopeless case when it does expire i shall get a new one
These people have tried to con us twice. After reading on here about them I have called them liars and dirty rotten scammers and they should be ashamed of themselves. Funny,they put the 'phone down after that!
I completely agree, but those cases where System Restore is not effective against malware are, IME, less than 50%. As something that an end user can do quite easily for themselves, getting their systems operational again very quickly, it's a tool that deserves wide publicity. It's also good for issues such as printers unexpectedly ceasing to work. We've all seen loads of instances of machines that were working perfectly 'yesterday' suddenly playing up today. A quick System Restore as the second line of defence (powering-down and restarting being the first) cures many ills at minimum cost & risk.
Where nasty things such as rootkits are involved, the user's almost certainly going to need to get an expert involved anyway.
Angela,, It doesn't sound to me as if anything got far enough for anything bad to have happened. There is, however, a fantastic & easy way to be extra-certain, so long as you're using any version of Windows from XP onwards. (Perhaps Bruce has already told you about this.)
This function is called System Restore, and it puts your computer system (but not files, emails & so on, which are completely up-to-date) back to a specific date & time in the past. It allows you to put your system back to a date before some bad thing (might have) happened. In your case, before the scam phone call took place; in other circumstances, perhaps before the email attachment was clicked that infected your machine with a virus. The route to doing this varies according to which version of Windows you are using, but you can usually start by clicking on Help & Support in the main "Start" Menu. If this doesn't give you any System Restore info, just type System Restore into the search box. One of the first reply items, such as What is System Restore will usually contain a link that will initiate the Restore process. On my machine it says "Click to open System Restore". After you click on this, you're presented with a list of dates & times, and I would select the one immediately before the incident that kicked off the whole process. After that, it's really just a case of following the instructions on the screen. The process normally takes about 10 - 15 mins, and you are even given the choice of keeping the revised system or going back to square one. This process has saved friends of mine (& me) from many problems in the past. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with (potential) problems on their Windows machines.
The one downside of System Restore is that you must re-install any new software that has been installed since the date that you are restoring to. That software is still physically on the hard disk, but is no longer in the Windows "Registry" & so must be re-installed.
When i got the call warning bells started to ring as soon as he said he wanted to gain access to my pc he even gave a uk London phone number for me to ring to verify which could have been anyone from his mate to the local take away who was also in with the scam, in the end after a word with Bruce Taylor i told the guy when he rang back to go forth they even tried it again a few months later this time although i am normally polite on the phone two words were spoken by me the second one being off
in addition to calling Bruce (who is great and will be able to help you) you could also try and get some more information about the call itself - does your phone have a journal of incoming calls and if so, can you retrieve the number of the caller and report it. Other than that, I would suggest writing down as much information as your hubby can remember so you can pass it on to Bruce - including date, time, what he was asked to do, what was on the screen at the time, and general information about your computer and operating system [if you know it], etc. Good luck!
Give this guy a ring Bruce taylor 0561608423 he is fully aware of the scam i discussed it with him some time back he also has a web site so you can check him out,he is a straight talking guy