My mum had this phone call today and unfortunately fell for it. I happened to phone her while they were updating/checking or whatever it is they do. I told her that this was a scam and she turned her computer off while they still had control of it.

I'm after some advice on what she should do next? She has phoned her bank and reported this. They have blocked her online account and put a fraud alert on her accounts. I have used her computer in the past to log into my bank account online, should I change my password too?

I don't know all that much about computers but my mum knows a lot less! Is there anyone else she should contact? And what about going to use the computer again? The computer is about 8/9 years old (I think) and runs on XP. It's very, very slow to run. I installed antivirus software on there for her a few weeks ago (god knows how long she had been using it without any) but she said this made it impossible to run so removed it...

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

ETA: They have phoned her back and they are a company called Support 2 Direct. Having googled this company it seems like they are just after (easy) money for protecting your computer, rather than installing all sorts and gaining your details.

But any advice would still be welcome.

It's unlikely that they will have done anything of significance to the computer - for most part it just seems to be a scam to get paid for doing nothing.
[list][*]Presumably she gave them her credit card details, if that's different to the bank that she's actually informed - then she should also contact the credit card company.[*]You've got to put a virus checker back. I'd suggest MSE which is fairly light and runs okay on XP. You need to install one, update it and do a full scan.[*]Also download the free version of malwarebytes, install and update this and do a full scan with it. This will catch stuff the virus checker can miss.[*]Don't use the PC for internet banking till you've done these scans to be sure it's free from malware (even just to change the password).[/list]
Having a PC connected to the net without a virus checker is far too risky, and could expose you / her to far more sofisticated scams such as: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1667868

Changing passwords is never normally a bad idea However never do that from a PC that could be compromised, so if you change them - do it from another PC or make sure it's virus & malware scanned first

In respect of running malwarebytes - see jzee's post for more comprehensive instructions
Last edited by platelet : 30-05-2012 at 14:32

Go into safe mode by tapping F8 at startup. Download free version of Malwarebytes and install. Run malwarebytes, update the database if prompted, if not prompted go to update tab and check for updates there. Once fully updated run a full scan. Boot up into normal mode, install a trial of one of Norton or F Secure from this link. Update and run a full scan.

Thanks guys, that's a great help. I am about to go on the school run but will pop into my mums on the way home to do the above suggestions. I'll take my laptop too so she can change passwords to be on the safe side.

I have warned her loads about having no protection on it, especially as she does all her banking online.

Thanks again.

You could really do her a favour and get her a newer computer which would run AV and not be slow. 8/9 years is really quite old for a computer.

why not just use the restoration cd / drive partition to set her computer back to original shipping condition?

make sure you back her files up first... but after that she will have a clean install of windows. delete any unwanted pre-installed software. and use msconfig to prevent things from starting up that arent needed.

the system will run faster. and if the scam call people did put any dodgy malware on the PC, it will be deleted.

Two things would put me off that route

1) If the malware is attached to anything you restore from that backup, you'd reinfect so you need to virus scan the backup anyway

2) Original shipping was 8/9 years ago so lots and lots of updates to apply.

Just had an interesting cold call from a nice Indian chap from 'PC Support'.

Apparently, whenever you buy a computer, it is logged on their system and they monitor its health and send you messages if they detect a problem. Very good of them.

Well, apparently, they've detected a problem with mine. I'm told it's being filled up with files which may lead to crashing and instability. <sharp intake of breath> He says they've been sending me system messages, but I haven't acted on them. So that's why he's calling me. It is now urgent this problem be fixed.

Okay, we know it's just another variation of the same scam that's been doing the rounds for years. But this time, they've slightly adjusted their script…

In playing the technologically illiterate boob - as I felt I should - among various questions trying to catch him out, the main one was hoping to get him to commit to the assumption that I was running Windows. Cos then I'd have had him! But unfortunately, he didn't make that assumption. He asked if I was running Windows, Linux or Mac. I guess there's more people not running Windows nowadays than there used to be.

I didn't want to give my advantage away, so I said all 3, which confused the hell out of him. But still, he continues with his script saying that he can prove that messages have been sent to me and I had just been stupidly ignoring them. All I need to do is go to task manager and… well I messed up, I blustered, I lost my bottle and I hung up on him. I guess I'm just not a very good actor. Maybe if I'd been prepared, I could have made a better show if it.

I do wonder though, what if I had confessed to using a Mac? All the anecdotes I'd seen up to yet are for Windows. Apparently, there are temp & log files deep within Windows they can use to scare the not-so technical minded into believing their system is riddled with viruses. But what about the Mac? Or Linux? Do they have similar routines for them? Or would they just hang up on you at that point?

If anyone else gets a similar variation of this, I'd be interested to hear how the non-Windows script goes. Just for my own morbid curiosity.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1435992

I've asked mods to merge with the sticky above.

See sticky at top of board.

The Mods should improve the title of the pinned thread, only the word 'PINNED' in the colour stands out, the actual wording ....Unsolicited calls concerning your computer... should be made bigger, bolder or even a different colour to the rest of the posts.
Just my thought on it

Although that doesnt take away the fact that there is a search function

Had 3 calls in the last week , on the last call told them I didn't have a pc and to stop calling . He then called me a liar at which point I was too incensed to tell him where to go and just hung up .

Had one yesterday he said his name was Cliff Richard

I had one yesterday..he said his name was Shaun Connery

Heads up

The Microsoft Cold Callers have started to get wise and they are now acting Indian Officals. I had started a thread so thought about posting it here as well thread is here

You've got to admit, it's pretty clever. Scam people out of money by pretending to fix their computer. Then scam the same people by pretending to offer an 'official refund' for the earlier scam.

I got a call last week from an Indian woman - I admitted I was Mrs Riley (I'm not lol!) and she did the old spiel. As I was upstairs with the phone I just shouted down the phone 'Oh why don't you just go and fcuk yourself!)...gosh I felt liberated lol!

8.45 this morning I had a phone call from PC Support on behalf of BT. My caller display showed that it was a private number. So I knew straight away that it wasn't BT He stated that my computer had a virus. I just told him to go and Fcuk himself and hung up.

I am going to get in touch with BT CEO's office and make them aware of this. All ISPs' should be made aware of this and inform their customers either by e-mails or by putting a notice on their website.

Think BT already do on their website warn of things like this - can't expect every ISP to start e-mailing everyone about every scam - people just need some common sense most of the time

just had call & before he had chance to tell me computer was slow.

i said : no virus & pc is fine

he said : you might think your pc is fine but they been getting complaints of my broadband provider about my pc going slow (yep like me isp give a sh*t)

i said : who's my broadband provider

he said: sky (its virgin)

me: wrong, try again & i know your a scammer and he hung up.

had one the other week saying i had a virus & I said yes my pc is going slow & its got a virus (he thought he'd struck gold) any thing he told me to do, i said no the virus won't let my pc do that, he was trying a few things so in the end I told him my virus checker says its the anti-scammer virus and he hung up

I was getting 2 or 3 of these a week at one time. They are down to about 1 per month at the moment. The best one I had was when I played along answering questions and stringing him along After about 10 minutes I told him that I was running Linux... he went to get a colleague who said they could not support Linux and hung up on me, the cheeky so and so !

It's got so bad that I simply don't trust any one with an Indian accent any more when I get an unexpected call.

BBC's Panorama has just covered this.

I just had yet another of these calls. It was from telephone number 049 - what sort of number is that???

I pretended to boot up my pc for ages, I told her it was a very old computer and would take ages to boot. She waited while I did it(or pretended to). She gave me some instructions which I pretended to follow, then asked what was on my screen.

I told her it was a lovely picture of my cat (I don't have a cat) that my 60 yr old son (I'm 43) put on my desktop for me. I spent ages describing it, and saying it had black crackly flashes - was this caused by the malware?

She said it was definitely the malware causing all my problems, but not to worry she would help me fix it. I pretended to follow more instructions, after which she again asked "what can you see on your screen. To which I replied "it says 'f*** off scammer'" and hung up.

I could hear the excitement in her voice, as she thought she was about to scam some poor old woman who lived alone with a cat. These people have no conscience whatsoever.

Yep, got one yesterday. Just told him to piss off. Next time I might 'play' with them for a while.

I've had half a dozen calls like this. The latest one was a couple of weeks ago.

I was bored, wasn't doing anything, so I played along, telling him how lucky I was that he had contacted me. I didn't want an infected computer. Poured on the thanks and praise.

I was told of the problems that my Pc had. So I followed all the steps. Yeah right.

Except I couldn't access their site, well that's what I told the guy. I told him I'd tried IE, and firefox but couldn't access the link I was given.

This went on for about twenty minutes. Then I suggested that I could go and get my laptop (I don't have a laptop) and could try using that.

Went through everything again for another twenty minutes.

So forty minutes later, the joke was a bit flat, I told him I knew his game, called him a few choice words and hung up.

Not had one of these calls since.
I just wish I'd recorded it. His frustration at dealing with a computer numpty was great. Not to mention his reaction at the end.