#174389 by Dr.Robotnik
Mon Aug 19, 2013 12:19 am
Tech support scams appear to be a growing problem as of the time of writing this post using google to lookup "tech support scams" without the quotes results in over 2,110,000 results.
If scamwarners does not cover tech support scammers I think they should I have wrote up something on what they do:
What tech support scammers do is call people and pretend to somehow know that the victim's computer is infected with viruses. They may also make other false claims such as they are working for microsoft. That is a huge lie according to http://www.microsoft.com/security/onlin ... sname.aspx microsoft does not call people.
While they may have had a lucky guess that a person has a virus they have no way of knowing if a computer is infected or not.
If you ask how they know they will usually pick random word related to networking like IP address and try to use them in a sentence that someone makes it sound like they can tell that a computer is infected
In fact it is possible to be called by the scammers without even owning a computer.
Tech support scammers may instead of saying that they work for microsoft they may instead say that they are microsoft certified.
This is very unlikely although one tech support scam group did pay the fees to become a "microsoft gold partner" they got away with it for awhile but it ended up not going well for them see http://www.geek.com/news/microsoft-dump ... s-1423173/
So if a victim falls for their tricks what the scammers will do is usually predictable with slight variations.
Install remote access software. This allows the tech support scammers see the computer though this has many legit uses the scammer take advantage the ability to remotely control the computer. This allows them to easily do stuff to the victims computer without their permission some software even allows them to copy files without the victims permission.
I will talk about two different types of scams that tech support scammers do:
1. Fake anti-virus software
Usually after (but sometimes before) the scammer installs the remote access software they will launch event viewer though event viewer will usually show several errors there is a very high chance that those errors/warnings do not affect the operation of the computer. Some tech support scammers will say that the virus is on the network and will make the false claim that even if the victim buys a new computer it will still affect them. Another thing the scammer may do is open up a command prompt. They usually do this by holding down the control key (CTRL) and then press the R key. They then type in cmd after that they can do lots of evil stuff I will only talk about the very common one in-case a tech support scammer sees this. The command dir is used see http://www.computerhope.com/dirhlp.htm what it really does is display files by running it with dir c:\ /s it will display every single file that exist on a computer. So in other words the scammers are going though all personal files on the computer Tip: you can abort the command by holding the control key (CTRL) and press the C key.
The second type of scam is the unlicensed windows copy:
This is where they will run the command promot and type the command verify it will most likely say "VERIFY is off" without the quotes. What the verify command actually does is tell you if windows will verify files written to the harddisk see http://www.computerhope.com/verifyhl.htm
The scammers will pretend that the command tells if you own a valid windows license and they will try to sell the victim a fake windows license.
Both of these types of scams will result in the scammer asking for money they will usually ask for a credit card and/or bank details they will then take the money they claimed they charged and usually more after they charged the victim for the their fake services.
Please do not fall for these scams you can avoid them by
1. Hanging up once you hear their greeting usally they waste no time by saying that they are from microsoft.
2. Even better yet if you reconize the number don't pick up at all.
3.(optional) Install a better operating system. I am not talking about MAC I am talking about GNU/Linux or as some people call it Linux. A good distro for beginners is ubuntu the best part is that this is free that is right at no cost to you and the best part is that you will most likely find that you are still able to do everything that you could do on windows.
I hope this helps someone.
If scamwarners does not cover tech support scammers I think they should I have wrote up something on what they do:
What tech support scammers do is call people and pretend to somehow know that the victim's computer is infected with viruses. They may also make other false claims such as they are working for microsoft. That is a huge lie according to http://www.microsoft.com/security/onlin ... sname.aspx microsoft does not call people.
While they may have had a lucky guess that a person has a virus they have no way of knowing if a computer is infected or not.
If you ask how they know they will usually pick random word related to networking like IP address and try to use them in a sentence that someone makes it sound like they can tell that a computer is infected
In fact it is possible to be called by the scammers without even owning a computer.
Tech support scammers may instead of saying that they work for microsoft they may instead say that they are microsoft certified.
This is very unlikely although one tech support scam group did pay the fees to become a "microsoft gold partner" they got away with it for awhile but it ended up not going well for them see http://www.geek.com/news/microsoft-dump ... s-1423173/
So if a victim falls for their tricks what the scammers will do is usually predictable with slight variations.
Install remote access software. This allows the tech support scammers see the computer though this has many legit uses the scammer take advantage the ability to remotely control the computer. This allows them to easily do stuff to the victims computer without their permission some software even allows them to copy files without the victims permission.
I will talk about two different types of scams that tech support scammers do:
1. Fake anti-virus software
Usually after (but sometimes before) the scammer installs the remote access software they will launch event viewer though event viewer will usually show several errors there is a very high chance that those errors/warnings do not affect the operation of the computer. Some tech support scammers will say that the virus is on the network and will make the false claim that even if the victim buys a new computer it will still affect them. Another thing the scammer may do is open up a command prompt. They usually do this by holding down the control key (CTRL) and then press the R key. They then type in cmd after that they can do lots of evil stuff I will only talk about the very common one in-case a tech support scammer sees this. The command dir is used see http://www.computerhope.com/dirhlp.htm what it really does is display files by running it with dir c:\ /s it will display every single file that exist on a computer. So in other words the scammers are going though all personal files on the computer Tip: you can abort the command by holding the control key (CTRL) and press the C key.
The second type of scam is the unlicensed windows copy:
This is where they will run the command promot and type the command verify it will most likely say "VERIFY is off" without the quotes. What the verify command actually does is tell you if windows will verify files written to the harddisk see http://www.computerhope.com/verifyhl.htm
The scammers will pretend that the command tells if you own a valid windows license and they will try to sell the victim a fake windows license.
Both of these types of scams will result in the scammer asking for money they will usually ask for a credit card and/or bank details they will then take the money they claimed they charged and usually more after they charged the victim for the their fake services.
Please do not fall for these scams you can avoid them by
1. Hanging up once you hear their greeting usally they waste no time by saying that they are from microsoft.
2. Even better yet if you reconize the number don't pick up at all.
3.(optional) Install a better operating system. I am not talking about MAC I am talking about GNU/Linux or as some people call it Linux. A good distro for beginners is ubuntu the best part is that this is free that is right at no cost to you and the best part is that you will most likely find that you are still able to do everything that you could do on windows.
I hope this helps someone.