Warning Telephone Scam

Hi People

The title says it all really.

About a month ago, a lady rang me saying that she had had a telephone call from 'Microsoft' saying that they ('Microsoft') had noticed that her computer was suffering from corrupt files and spyware.  She put them off and called me.  I told her that it was a scam and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  I thought nothing more of it,until a couple of days ago, another lady rang me saying the exact same thing, only this time she followed their instructions

First of all, she asked them why she should believe them, so they asked her to go to a website to 'prove' they were genuine and mentioned again that they were 'Microsoft Partners' (I believe they may have ripped off someone's site and presented it with a new domain name (the www address ).
Being convinced that they were who they said they were, she allowed them to access her computer remotely.

Needless to say, they must have put something on the computer as directly they had finished, they told her that her PC was indeed infected and that for XX sum of money, per 3 months she could have her computer kept clean. 

She twigged at this point (but the damage had already been done), and told them that she had not agreed to pay any money.  

To which they said well if you dont have it done your computer will close down in six hours.

*  NOTE Microsoft DO NOT ring you unless you have contacted them first to arrange a support call *

Do not take phone calls from Microsoft Partners.

This was the point at which I was called in to remedy the situation



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A Lesson to be learned

Hi People

How are you doing?

Possibly better than several recent clients of mine.

They received large bills for repairs. What sort of repairs, you might ask. You must realise that this is a computer oriented blog, so it has to be for computers.

It wasn't for hardware, but for the software/operating system side of things.

You see, they had the misfortune to pick up some bits of malware and in some cases they hadn't updated their operating system with the latest patches. Although an anti-virus (in some cases internet security packages were present, they were out of license or insufficiently prepared for the nasties) and anti-spyware packages were present, it appears (because they were free) that the software wasn't updated and used to scan the system regularly.

What happened? The first pieces of malware arrive unnoticed and these installed and brought down other pieces of malware. Eventually some nasty rogue anti-malware program were installed and that's when we were called in. Now the seriousness of this situation, is compounded by the fact that several people had conducted financial transactions on these systems, leaving them open to account and card abuse.

On receiving the systems, firstly (on client instructions) we recovered their data (essential as malware can cripple the system) Then, we attempted to remove the nasties using several techniques, which were partially successful (we got the system up and running), but the malware had corrupted the registry, causing the operating system to boot and then put a notice that the services.exe had encountered an error and the system would close after 1 minute.

Solution, repair the operating system, not a word of it. The system disk bypassed the repair option and proceeded to the installation option. Secondary option was to put another copy of the operating system on the hard drive alongside the damaged one, then add all the drivers, programs and re-link the documents, emails etc., this was the approach we made in the end.  Advantages are that the operating system is fresh (no infection and please make sure you have an internet security package installed in the new install, together with at least two antispyware packages - free if necessary- fully updated), data can be copied across to the new installation, and (if possible) the original installation, may be available if something has been overlooked - this is not advisable as system reinfection can occur.  All in all, a process which can take 4-5 hours work, with the engineer present most of the time (hence the large bills).

Some people considered a replacement machine, but whilst this reduced the amount owed, it was still a substantial sum. Now there are several ways to prepare for something like this.

Firstly, backup your data REGULARLY.  Secondly once your system is up and running satisfactorily and you are sure there are no viruses, malware or other faults present, then create an image of your hard drive to another hard drive, dvds, or blue-ray discs (if you are fortunate enough to have a blue-ray recorder).
Thirdly make sure you have the installation files/cds/dvds for all the programs you wish to use with your system (some may be acquired freely on line, but others are not available without paying for them).

Well, I hope you do not suffer the situations that these unfortunate people went through, but you have been warned.

See you next time, people

Regards
Prometheus1618

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