Another Computer scam still going strong

I had a similar call before Christmas from a person claiming she was from the "Windows Help Desk" and my computer was at serious risk from malwares blah blah blah. For $75 they would clear up this threat and then for an annual subscription they would make sure it wouldn't happen again. The alarms bells chimed in about now so I hung up.

Rob.

G'day Graham,

I've had 4 of these calls in the last month from similar blood-suckers, all sounding like they came from the subcontinent (Three Harrys and a Harriet).

I have to admit to a rather devilish streak (and 25 years of IT background) so I tend to string them along a bit but at no stage are they ever going to get me to go to their website or invite them into my system. I figured I had a win with the last one as she hung up on me!

The below exchange is after she's told me that they have been advised that my PC has a problem. They didn't ever disclose what the problem was, or who advised them of the fact but implied that they were authorised by Microsoft.

HC: Please turn on your computer and connect to the internet.
Me: Which computer?
HC: The one that connects to the internet.
Me: I have 6 computers that connect to the internet. Which one should I use?
HC: The one with Windows 7
Me: I have 2 with Windows 7 on them. Which one should I use?
HC: The one you use to connect to the internet the most.
Me: That one is being serviced and isn't available. What should I do?
HC: Use the other one.
Me: But if the one I use the most has the problem, how is logging on with the other PC going to help?
HC: Umm.....

Hey, us retirees have to get their fun where they can. ;-)

As you rightly point out, Graham, do NOT let the bottom feeders anywhere near your computers.

Cheers,
Chris

Yes, I also had one the other day purporting to be Microsoft. I would have hung up on him, but pressed him with "are you actually Microsoft?". Very difficult to follow his Indian accent, but he said they were "affiliated with Microsoft", along with McAfee, et al. A lot of techno-babble about how malware and viruses were affecting my computer, which they had been monitoring for some time. And it was running at only 67% of max performance. This guy was rabbiting on about how the malware was even slowing my motherboard. I pressed him on which computer was infected, as I had several. What was the MAC address? Lots of ducking and diving with loads of techno-babble. I kept him on the phone for over half an hour.
Anyway, I checked out irecure.com. They've put a lot of work into this site, with branches all around the world (read India) and affilliations with lots of reputable companies. Lots of work put into this site, but loads of typos; eg, "Rapid Solution on Cloudy Computing" LOL!. And lots of testimonials from happy customers saying how good they are. They apparently have gay married customers, as one testimonial has a Steve Parker talking about his husband dying of cancer! And they've installed lots of hits on Google with sites recommending them.

Stay clear!

Gerry

Reminds me of an old MicroSoft joke I heard at a conference some years ago:

One wintry morning a helicopter was flying a VIP from the city to Seattle airport when an electrical malfunction disabled the navigation and communication equipment. Due to the thick fog the chopper pilot couldn't get a visual fix on his position, but then he saw a tall building and quickly hatched a plan. He flew toward it, hovered next to windows where people had gathered to look, and got his passenger to hold up a large sign which said: "WHERE AM I ?"

The people in the building quickly responded with their own sign which read : "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER."The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map and set his course for the airport.

After they had landed the VIP asked the pilot how he'd worked out their position from the sign. "Well", he said, "I knew that the building had to be the MICROSOFT HQ because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer."

I'm fearful my Mums computer has been subject to this about 4 weeks ago. Other than the inconvenience of it all, how do we check that keylogger has/hasn't been installed? And if there is, how do we git rid of it? I'm concerned for Mum as she does most of her banking on it. I guess ultimately as it's a laptop, although I think it was brand new early last year, it is as slow as a wet week, it would be disposable. As it's plug ADSL, even if the laptop is completeley replaced, is there any effect on a replacement being plugged in?
We've had a few phone calls that show as oversea's on the caller id, which we ignore, but I now like the idea of picking the phone up and putting it down for a while.
Cheers,
Dion.