A Narrow Eascape?
By MsTickle
@MsTickle (25180)
Australia
September 15, 2010 12:42am CST
SCAM ALERT
This afternoon i received a phone call from an unknown source. I could barely understand the speaker who obviously knew my phone number but also my name. I asked where he was from and he said something about Windows Tech Support. He told me my computer was infected and proceed to take me through my computer, first to the "Event Log" where he pointed out many, many errors and several warnings. He then took me into Dos and showed me a section which he said were all the trojans and viruses infecting my computer. He assured me that he would be able to walk me through the process of removing all these infections but first I had to "re-organise the warranty on my software"
He then directed me to an address and suggested I take out a further 3 months warranty on my software as this would give me 2 fee services such as he described. There was a form asking for my details. I baulked at this and argued with him and he became almost aggressive in his manner...still very polite but he was putting a lot of pressure on me. The service he was instructing me to sign up for was $140 approximately.
I told him I was hanging up and he was still arguing his case...3 times I tried to see if the line was clear and he was still there.
Now I'm no expert but this all seemed very wrong to me. I went back and looked at some of the warnings and one of them mentioned sidebyside which I searched and found to be Adware but not dangerous. I rang the guys who I purchased the laptop from and they told me that Windows provides no warranty with software because software can be edited by the user. He also said it was possible that I have entered my info somewhere and the info has been sold or otherwise passed on to these guys who have installed this garbage on my computer so they can ring me up and offer to fix it. (My friend mentioned the recent application I downloaded and have since removed, I won't say the name but most of you will guess which app I'm talking about.
Bottom line, I'm uncertain as to what I need to do now. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm careful and run my AVG scans daily and others weekly and they find nothing. I'm worried these guys can somehow further infect my computer.
Do NOT give out any info if someone contacts you regarding updating your software warraNTY.
8 people like this
20 responses
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
20 Sep 10
Hey thanks for the information. Some of us are so gullible about stuff like this because we don't know the in's and outs of computers sometimes. For me as soon as they mentioned money I would have to say sorry and hang up..Wow that is alot of money..But thanks for the warning.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
21 Sep 10
I guess every one should be extra weary of callers calling that they don't know.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
20 Sep 10
Hi, that's pretty much what happened but he really put me through the wringer prior to that to convince me he was legitimate. The ratbag. The thing is, I'm broke at the moment because I just had to fork out for a massive repair to my car. Otherwise I might have fallen for it. He really did a number on me.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
Yep, I do too but I have missed a few survey opportunities doing that so I make sure I know whom I'm speaking. I rarely admit I'm me if they ask...I tell them I'm my sister and that "I" am not available. I told this guy my name was Sue Smith but he ignored me and kept going at which point I was concerned and therefore "hooked". I thought he was genuine.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
15 Sep 10
I don't even like surveys any more, at least not on the phone. I don't mind doing online ones.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
Actually, I bought it from the online division of the company. When I wanted help, I rang my local store and a young fellow kindly helped me out. He was under no obligation to do so. I don't know the staff there at all but this fellow I spoke to yesterday also was very keen to assure me it was a scam and I did the right thing. I will be writing to the store and thanking them and commending their staff.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
15 Sep 10
In one of your comments you said you decided to trust myLot so I am assuming it was the latest money earning software dare I say a fuzzy brown animal with the initials CG!!
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
15 Sep 10
I am really glad you were savvy enough not to be scammed. I am still not too sure the furry one is innocent.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
Yes, that's the one. The thing is though. He got me to look in my event log which is where I saw the errors and warnings he pointed out were trojans and viruses. I checked one "source" called "sidebyside" and found it to be a small non threatening bit of adware. When I rang my friend to tell her I took her into her event log and she also had error and warning signs but she didn't download the furry cash animal. He also showed me a file in DOS that he said were also threats but I didn't recognise anything there...it's all undecipherable code stuff. I think these activities were meant to assure me he was on the level.
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
17 Sep 10
yikes..that's creepy.
especially since he was still on your phone line like that..
1 person likes this
@yugasini (12836)
• Anantapur, India
17 Sep 10
hi ms tickle,
people are inventing new ways to earn money by doing this spurius type of things, i too was not accept this, there are lot of right ways to earn money,but no one should not do these type of earning by threating about software like that, till now i have not received such type of message,any how thanks for the alert so i may take necessary precation if such calls come to me,have a nice day
1 person likes this
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
16 Sep 10
I am not to sure at all what you can do to be honest
You need expert advise on this now as that is something I have never dealt with anything like this before and to be honest I would have just told them I am not interested
I really hope that your Laptop can not be infected
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
17 Sep 10
I tried to tell him Gabs, truly, but he argued with me and insisted he was legitimate. It was a very good spiel he gave me. I'm sure my laptop is ok but if I can find out how to reformat it after I back up all my files I might try and do that. Thanks sweety, 
@animegirl334 (3263)
• United States
16 Sep 10
I hate people like that who try to cheat people into giving them money. I had a close call once too. I recieved an e-mail that said something like "Paypal, urgent business" and it said my account was hacked and I needed to reply the e-mail with my password immdiately or else the hackers would have my information. I was so scared that I wanted to reply but then I checked on paypal and then called a paypal representive and found out it was a scam. 
Why are there people like that out there?
Why are there people like that out there?
@snowy22315 (169893)
• United States
16 Sep 10
I think that he was just trying to get money out of you. It sounds liek you dodged a bullet and did the right thing in terms of hanging up on him.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
16 Sep 10
my son warned me about these guys they are using the old bait and switch tatics, they get you to download them then they infect your compouter and then get you to pay for them to uninfect your machine so never download these jerks they are just bad news all the way around.
stick to avg and youi will be fine.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
16 Sep 10
Thanks Hatley. I haven't actually downloaded anything other than AVG, Malwarebytes, Glary utilities and cash Gopher. I'm not even sure my computer has any real threats attached because it's only a few months old. I'm going to try and contact Microsoft and tell them what happened.
@rckayla09 (113)
• United States
16 Sep 10
The first tip-off that it definitely was a scam is the fact that Windows Tech Support (which is Microsoft Corp) would never call up their customers about their computers being infected. Neither would the manufactuerer of the computer you own. Also, these corporations would never, ever try to sell you software over the phone. And only a computer repair-person can remove viruses and malware. Nobody else, not even technical support personnel at these corporations. Luckily you escaped this scammer! Good for you for being smart :) Unfortunately though there are some - especially the elderly - who may have believed this guy and forked over their hard-earned money to him. Thanks for the warning about this new type of scam!
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
16 Sep 10
Thank you so much for your kind words...I'm actually beginning to feel smarter. I was alarmed from the start and it was not a good feeling. I hope I have been able to help someone else. I wonder if this guy works for the company that he directed me to so as to buy their product because if he does then their could be repercussions if I report my experience to Microsoft.
@Angelgirl16 (2171)
• United States
15 Sep 10
Hi Ms Tickle,
Scammers will never quit trying to take decent consumers for a ride, if you will. But, smart consumers, like yourself, have learned a few tricks of their own. They don't believe everything that is being said to them, and they do thorough research on the would be scam company before handing over their hard earned money.
I have no patience with the telemarketers/scam artists. Therefore, to keep from listening to their lies, I have turned the ringer down to silence. This way, I don't get up to answer the phone and if they want to leave a message, which most times they don't, I see the flashing red light.
Thank you for the warning. I will use the information as knowledge gained for the future.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
Actually, angelgirl16, you hit the nail on the head. When I first picked up the phone and heard the voice asking if it was me on the other end, my first thought was a telemarketer. I guess there will always be a smarty pants who will come up with ideas to rip people off. Thank goodness for myLot where we can reach so many people wand warn them against these threats to our peace of mind.
@cerebellum (3863)
• United States
16 Sep 10
Thanks for the warning! I would never suspect someone of planting a virus so they can call and get me to pay them to take it off. The scam artists are probably banking on calling someone like me, that doesn't know much about computers. I think everyone is afraid of getting a virus, but I wouldn't know what to do and I might panic enough to do whatever he said. He must have hacked into your computer to know if you had a virus or not. I am glad I didn't download the application you are talking about (if it was the one I think it was).
I guess you have to be vigilant about everything these days.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
16 Sep 10
I don't think my computer is hacked...no way. Thank goodness. But I do enter a lot of contests and sign up for surveys and stuff. Sometimes this is something called phishing and your info is passed on or sold on to another company who then target you, usually with spam. These guys are going a bit further and ringing me with a telemarketing scenario. Instead of offering something for me to buy, they are offering to help me with repairs to my computer....for a fee. They are banking on the fact that most computers will have harmless Adware apps on their computer. So they suggest you have threats (trojans and viruses) or come right out and tell you you are infected but they can solve the problem for you.
I was in a panic, like you because my computer has been acting a little weird lately (I reckon this is normal) but I was suspicious too and I was not giving out any more info than what these guys already had. Rest assured, more scasms like this will occur and I will not be taken in again. 
@artistry (4152)
• United States
16 Sep 10
...Hi MsT, Wow. Thank you for the information. The amazing thing is that they had your telephone number. I have had virus warnings pop up on my screen telling me that I need what ever they are offering because my computer has multiple viruses which it never does. I check my securuty system and the computer is fine. But I have never had any pushy person call me trying to sell me anything. People go to all extremes for scams. It is too bad we can't block all the garbage that they are able to do. Thanks again for the warning. Take care.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
16 Sep 10
I'm always entering contests and surveys and such. It would be easy to look up my name and address and get my phone number. I reckon the majority of people would panic like me and then become suspicious but they would probably operate on a low percentage success rate...like say 5%, they would be doing okay with that. Sadly, therre will be people who fall for the lies.
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
15 Sep 10
I would never have let it go that far. Hopefully you will have it taken care of. I get really leary of any voice that I cannot understand.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
I believed there was a chance he was legit because he seemed to know what was on my computer. He may have been generalising on the assumption that I would be practically clueless...he seemed knowledgeable and that is what he was probably banking on. It was cleverly done. He even made a point of speaking slowly so I cpould better understand him...most of the time though I still had trouble.
@GardenGerty (157546)
• United States
15 Sep 10
I had been getting a lot of fake security warnings. I downloaded a free trial of the full AVG and I am very happy with it. The other thing I count on is Malwarebytes. These fake security breaches are occurring to many people more and more frequently.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
I used to get minimal threats picked up by AVG and Malwarebytes but now they always come up empty. One of the threats on my computer is supposed to be removed by Malwarebytes and it didn't even find it even though it is active nearly every day. It is a very small threat and does no damage.
@derek_a (10874)
•
16 Sep 10
I saw a report on this sort of behaviour in a newspaper a few weeks ago here in the U.K.
I used to be a neighbourhood watch co-ordinator and went to several seminars on crime prevention. One of the things we dealt with was telephone scams and the advice was never to give any details whatsoever to anybody on the telephone.
I am sorry to have heard of your problems and I hope that everything just settles down. if you are that worried though, you could back up all your files and then reinstall your operating system from scratch after doing full reformat of your hard drive. Then you could change all your passwords particularly on financial sites. You could even go out to do this on a friends computer or in a computer centre so that you would be coming to all your sites from an entirely different machine location.
It is really terrible that we have to protect our computers in this way. Good luck my friend. _Derek
_Derek@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
17 Sep 10
It sounds an easy thing to do Derek but when I think on it I might need some help. I used to reformat my computer when I first started and had Windows 98 and a disk but now I'm not so sure how to go about it. My computer did not come with a disk to start with, so I'm feeling at a loss.
Just for interests sake, the site he directed me to where I would fill out the form and pay my money to was a British site I think...he was urging me to notice the Microsoft logo in the corner to reinforce the legitimacy of his offer to fix my computer. The site was:
www.richtksupport.com
1 person likes this
@derek_a (10874)
•
17 Sep 10
It seems that you bought your computer in a larger store that came with Windows already installed. If it was Vista, then they urge you to make back-ups of your system yourself using blank DVDs. If you computer is XP then is could be that you should have a resintall disk If that is the case then you may be able to get an original operating system disk from somewhere like E-bay that would be cheaper than having to pay a computer shop to resintall for you. My computer has been build buy a firm that sells on e-bay and it came with the original windows & installation disk. I hope that you will be able to sort out your problems, but I would not recommend that you use any site on line for downloaded fixes unless you know exactly what the software will do. Good luck. _Derek
_Derek1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
15 Sep 10
omg!! thanks for letting us know about this. its obviously another ploy to get our money for protection we dont need. similar things has happened when a while back, i got a warning on my computer. even tho i already had security protection, they were saying i needed to download a new protection for 65 bucks.
we called our provider and my son had to go over some things on my pc to stop it from popping up. he finally got it straightened out. they were sending me a virus, so id buy their protection. 
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
I rang the place I bought my laptop from and the chappy said that's what they do...send you the trojans and viruses and then sell you the means to get rid of it. Do we have any real protection? I run AVG daily and Malwarebytes each week but still I'm getting bugged
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
15 Sep 10
That sounds incredibly dodgy to me. Luckily you had the good sense to check it out. You have to be so careful of scammers these days as they come in all sorts of forms and from all sorts of directions. It is always best to steer clear if you are not sure.
Thanks for sharing this important info about the potential scammers and the software!
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
15 Sep 10
Something alerted me from the beginning of the phone call, I'm not sure what. Maybe the feeling that he didn't like me questioning him. I was quite shaken by the situation and am now fearful of what else can be sent to my computer. What happened to Windows firewall and AVG...not to mention Spyboy S&D and malwarebytes which are all on my computer?
You're very welcome.
@jennyze (7029)
• Indonesia
15 Sep 10
Thank you for sharing this info. I am not good with computer so I would not know what to do myself. When you mentions a site you installed lately, I understood instantly. Luckily, I did not install it. I hope there will be helps from mylotters here how to fix your problem.
1 person likes this
