Beware of cold call scammers pushing rogue antivirus

I'll be worried

... when one day I get a call and when informed that I don't have a Windows Event Viewer, the caller asks me to view /var/log/messages.

Then they tell me to emerge some random rubbish!

Tell them you run Linux

After stringing them along for a few minues ''how do you know that I am infected'', ''stuff about anti virus'', I told them that I knew that they were lying since my PCs run Linux (which they do), they just hung up.

Add gogreenpc.net to the list of scammers.

Not that their callers even sound remotely professional.

oh lord

I suppose the trick is to play really dumb; "I don't have a mouse, I have a rabbit", "I pressed the on button, now do I want delicate linens or extra rinse?", "this cheese won't fit in my floppy drive unless I cut it up first, don't make me tell you a third time", "A virus? The doctor already gave me piss for that", "Why would I put the pills into my computer?" etc

the scum

did that to a freind of mine.

they didn't sort it out untill, they were promised a "visit" by their victim.*

he got his money back :)

*he managed to trace the company, london based.

Larks

Lots of tales about stringing them along for larks - which is exactly what I'd do. Bless you Reg readers, bless you all!

Been called twice - at different locations

First time - I was sitting in my friends office, so it was plausible that he might have a remote monitoring service. When they couldn't tell me which computer of 3 desktops and 3 servers had supposedly informed them about the virus, I got suspicious and then the line went dead.

Second time - at home. I again asked which computer (though I have only one), again dead line within moments.

Both cases sounded like Indian subcontinent call centres.

[I believe the Skybox scam is to get you to buy a warranty you don't need.]

Why do they never call me?

It's always nice to have a bit of a laugh at some scammer's expense. Same with phishing emails, I always follow the link and fill in as much information as possible. I recommend friends (who are savy enough) to do the same. The lower the SNR the better.

Saturday...

Got a call from them on Saturday morning asking to speak to me. So I ask who wants to know and an Indian man says he is from 'Windows Operating System' . At this point I ask how they got my number (always my first line since I signed up to the telephone preference service, and they shouldn't be cold calling me anyway!) and he says he got it through 'the international routing system' and that he is calling because my computer has been reporting a large number of errors.

Anyway, having failed to get him to explain satisfactorily how they managed to convert any IP address information into a telephone number, and being somewhat partial to Saturday morning cookery programmes, I'd had enough and told him 'This is a hoax call, and I don't want to continue with it' to which he replied 'Neither do I' and put the phone down.

Whether to string them along or not

Would be entirely dependent on how tired/bored/pissed off I was

Should be on TV

This should really be reported by the news or watchdog as even though great for theregister for reporting it, I think the readership already would not entertain these calls. The really vunerable are those who do not visit here....

And yes I had a call from these guys and kept them on the phone for ages. Was interested to see what they were doing. I just did what I was told and answered honestly. We went through my event log, but since I had just cleaned it, it had nothing wrong.

Then I was told to check task manager to find out how much my proccesor was being used. 1% I replied and that all 8 of my bar graphs showed hardy any activity.

So your computer is running slow I was asked?! No I responed, there is hardy any activity so it is fine. I was then asked how long it took to boot my PC. I responed about 30 seconds.

I was told that I was just stringing them along as PC's don't boot that fast and don't have that many cores and they hung up. I was tell the truth, I have an I7 CPU and a fast SDD to boot from. You just can't help some people.....

Actually this is good news

What this tells me is that Windows security has finally been beefed up to the point where they can't just quietly bust in to your system anymore, and need your cooperation to do it. This really is good news. They are expending manpower resources to call people now. Perhaps their costs will go up enough to make the malware business uneconomic.

Also gogreenpc.net

I had a customer who was stung by this last week. Quite convincing to a computer illiterate . An Indian gentleman named "Scott" phoned her up claiming to be from Microsoft claiming her PC has a virus. They got her to go through a number of things on her PC to 'prove' it's faulty or virus ridden. Then they instigate a remote access session on the PC via logmein123.com. Finally getting her to part with £180 for a 3 year 'support contract' or something like that. They even send an email to themselves from Outlook Express claiming that she has read their terms and conditions and has accepted the £180 fee. Email was sent to sales@gogreenpc.net Her credit card has now been cancelled - hopefully before any more funds were taken. A Malwarebytes scan and AVG virus scan didn't pick up on any dropped spyware, so it looks like this is a ruse to get cash/credit card info. Perhaps.

It also interesting that they knew her name and telephone number (which is ex-directory). This information must be leaking to these scammers somehow. Coincidentally she has recently bought a new Dell laptop - knowing the latter's penchant for Indian call centres, could this be a vector?

Seems like there's a lot of it about - though it's the first time I've personally come across this particular scam. cf:

https://www.srcf.ucam.org/~drt24/blog/tag/scam/

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02034115007

Is there any chance of getting the Bangalore / West Bengal police involved in making life difficult for these fraudsters?

Remember that wind-up...

...where the recipient pretended to be a police officer investigating a homicide detective and just about made the cold-caller crap themselves?

Imagine the fun:

(Phone rings) "Uh, hello?"

"Yes Sir/Madam. This is Bob from MS Security, your PC has a virus. We need to install anti-virus."

"Really. Wow. How do you know?"

"We monitored your PC and saw virus activity."

"OK. Please don't hang up, I just need to go into the other room."

"Sure." (Now find something that makes a clicking noise. Click it)

"Can you just repeat, you monitored my PC?"

"Oh yes, it's all part of the service and for a mere £75 we can cure you of virus!"

"Thank you for confirming on record that you monitored our systems."

"Huh?"

"You have called and just confessed to hacking and monitoring a Royal Signals Networking Bunker" (or something)

"..."

"No point in hanging up, we have already traced this call and your location. Your co-operation may mitigate any action taken against you, which could include life in prison. You've got no defence, I have your confession on tape. So, tell me your real name and who you work for and I'll do my best to help you." (and just carry on making crap up for as long as they stay on the line or you can be bothered for)

You probably won't get anything from them...but it would at least provide some amusement.

How about,

The criminal phones up a Register reader and tries to sell them antivirus software for twenty minutes. Meanwhile an accomplice breaks in through the bathroom window and steals all the Register reader's stuff from upstairs. Sheets, towels and the wonky old DVD player mainly, but if it's worth collecting old clothes from gullible householders and selling them in eastern Europe, it's got to be also worth nicking them.

Will happen now that India is making electric vehicles so that you don't hear the getaway car running outside.

Called me

Had an Indian sounding chap ring the other day, my wife took the call. When she said she was going to pass it over to me he hung up. Gave some sort of crap about my PC was sending errors... yeah, and somehow miraculously manged to also send you my phone number.

Would have loved to have had a conversation with him... Trouble is, even as rediculous as this scam is, some people will still log in and do as told.

+1 more

They called my mum a couple of weeks back. Fortunately I was there. Again they claimed to be a Microsoft partner, and gave her a phone number to call back on when asked. Alas, I was too paranoid to have her string them along for more than a couple of minutes. :(

Hadn't had a call

from these buggers for a few weeks, until last Friday. Usual, Indian or Pakistani-sounding accent, told me he was calling about my computer. I checked later on the TOPS site that I was still listed as not wanting cretinous cold-calling dingbats on my telephone line, trying to sell me malware, stone cladding or double glazing, so I can only imagine that these scammers are not registered as a legitimate business in the UK. Not registered anywhere, I suppose, unless Ankh Morpork has a Scammers Guild.

The first time I had a call from anyone telling me that my computer was emitting bad vibes - not quite what he said but it'll have to do - I asked the guy what evidence he had. He told me that my PC was badly infected and that his company could trace this through the miracles of the Vorld Vide Veb. He then went on to prove that not only was he a terribly bad liar, but that he knew nothing whatsoever about computing. I'm rarely rude to anyone over the phone, excepting my wife, of course, but I did tell him that I thought he ought to go out and find a proper job when I told him that I use a Mac and he asked me which version of Vindows I was running.

Anyway, it's all very well Reg readers being all smug and clever with these shysters, what happens when they call your mum or your granny and tell them that their PCs are rich in malware? I've warned my wife's parents about these callers but if they got a call from someone sounding even vaguely professional who told them that their Dell had a dose of something whiffy, they'd probably listen and go through the motions as requested by these crooks.