Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymouse
I got a phone call from a company saying they work with Microsoft, telling me my PC had a trojan - specifically winlogon.exe. But they sounded legit because they knew the Windows license number, which I'm fairly sure they couldn't have obtained from anyone but the people I bought my laptop from, PC Advisor.
I then spent a nerve-wracking half-hour or so surrendering control of my laptop while they did various things to clean up my system, terminate foreign network connections and restart Windows services allegedly disabled by Russian hackers. I've also paid them a sum of dosh for network security software; I presume I'll receive an email link to download it.
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, have I been conned? Is there any way a Windows license number can be fraudulently obtained remotely?
Or am I being paranoid?
But I can't help wondering how these supposed hackers got winlogon.exe past Norton. Plus I've been running https protocol for months and I now have a VPN.
So what precisely have I done: the smart thing, or the bloody stupid thing?
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The bloody stupid thing. You've given control of your PC to people you don't know who contacted you by phone. How did they get your phone number?
If your PC is not a "home built" one then it will have a generic product number.
Contact your bank or credit cards company and cancel all payments. You will (or should) have to replace your credit/debit cards as well. Also contact the bank to change login details for online banking.
Your PC will also have to be checked for any spyware/malware or virus which may have been installed by them.
Your fault totally, NEVER accept anyone contacting you by phone knows anything about you. Thay will use social engineering to get you to believe they do unless it is actually a company you have dealt with and given your phone number to and give you the correct reference number.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but don't shoot the messenger.