Home Support Scam

[fitzyjm76]

Seeing as VM have started pushing Digital Home Support this may now be appropriate.

A work friend recently had a phone call from someone claiming to be from a home support company stating that they have been contacted by Microsoft to advise that his PC has been infected with viruses and for a small fee (£95 not so small) they could remote in and sort the problem for them.

My mate being fully aware of what was going on (and has great knowledge of pc's) started questioning how Microsoft had passed on his details without his consent (breach of Data Protection) and was advised that they have been contacted, do you want us to sort it out or not. My mate said OK on you go then remote in and sort it out and I'll pay. The response came that they were having trouble accessing his pc to which he replied I'm not surprised as I'm running Linux. Needless to say the caller soon hung up when they realised he had cottoned on to them.

Have heard some other people mentioning this so it could be worth while just mentioning to friends and family to be careful if receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a support company.

Just so everyone knows though VM's Digital Home Support will never cold call. That's why they have a free phone number so you can phone them.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by fitzyjm76

Seeing as VM have started pushing Digital Home Support this may now be appropriate.

A work friend recently had a phone call from someone claiming to be from a home support company stating that they have been contacted by Microsoft to advise that his PC has been infected with viruses and for a small fee (£95 not so small) they could remote in and sort the problem for them.

My mate being fully aware of what was going on (and has great knowledge of pc's) started questioning how Microsoft had passed on his details without his consent (breach of Data Protection) and was advised that they have been contacted, do you want us to sort it out or not. My mate said OK on you go then remote in and sort it out and I'll pay. The response came that they were having trouble accessing his pc to which he replied I'm not surprised as I'm running Linux. Needless to say the caller soon hung up when they realised he had cottoned on to them.

Have heard some other people mentioning this so it could be worth while just mentioning to friends and family to be careful if receiving calls from someone claiming to be from a support company.

That's without mentioning that Microsoft would not be able to determine the telephone number of the owner of the "infected" pc without having full access to the billing records of the ISP providing the connection. Even then, they wouldn't be correct in all cases (for example if you pay for someone else, the billing address would be your house, but the service wouldn't).

And yes, I had one of these calls.

I had such a phone call recently but as I hadn't asked for any such support I put the phone down.

Life is too short to be even pretend to be suckered in and I've got better things to spend my time on.

However thanks for the warning as there are bound to be enough people who fall for this for it to be worthwhile giving a warning

[Peter_]

Already being discussed here.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/59...one-calls.html

Originally Posted by Masque

Already being discussed here.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/59...one-calls.html

No it's an entirely different issue, so we will leave this thread open.

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

No it's an entirely different issue, so we will leave this thread open.

The first post is basically the same subject but it digresses into how to prevent such cold calls in the first place.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Masque

The first post is basically the same subject but it digresses into how to prevent such cold calls in the first place.

So Are you saying that we should merge together all modem faults as well?? WOW in that case we can have a fourm with just a dozen threads on it

In this case it's always nice to highlight even an already posted issue especially in a section like this instead of having the thread vanish into the archives

anyway....

I had a phone call a few months ago telling me that my system was sending out 20,000 emails and the guy claimed to be from Virginmedia

In this case he was correct and on my server I found a little rougue PHP file that someone has used a zencart vunerability to upload and execute

Not all people who ring up are bad.. just most of them

[Jon T]

I've had two people come down to the IT dept at work to ask me about this. Both had calls to request remote access to their PC's, both were told that they'd been passed the details from Dell after the people reported problems with their PC's. Oddly enough both people had Dell PC's, and both had recently phoned Dell for technical support, however the faults were nothing to do with speed. Boths calls were apparently termiinated by the caller when challenged to prove who they were.

I'd love one of them to phone me up - I'd have so much fun with them!!

[Peter_]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

So Are you saying that we should merge together all modem faults as well?? WOW in that case we can have a fourm with just a dozen threads on it

Not really as the first post in the other thread is also about this same subject and usually similar threads are merged as you well know, but the other thread kind of digressed away from the call and into ways to prevent such calls.

[Rainman]

I had another call from what sounds like an Indian call centre, the person told me they work for Windows and I have a virus on my computer.
The first thing I ask was how did you get my phone number and was told "when you registered your computer". I told him I built my own computer and my number was Xdirectory, how did you get my number. He then told me my Internet provider gave them it , I said they should not give it to 3rd party without asking me first. End of call.
I phoned VM to ask if they have some one to contact their subscribers about virus's and the customer service person said she put me though to a technical adviser. A Indian bloke came on the phone that I could not understand at all ,but he decided he was going to help me do a virus check. End of call.
Now can anyone tell me have VM a 3rd party that will contact you if they think you have a virus.
If not what is VM doing about these malicious calls I have been receiving for the last 6 months, I was told by VM technical person to take the number but it is always number unattainable.

[Jayster]

Its a scam and I would doubt that Virgin media gave them your phone number. Its impossible to see that you have a virus on your computer and the only time I could think of Virgin media contacting you about viruses is if you are part of a Botnet in which case they would be telling you that you are either using to much bandwidth or using your connection for malicious activity. I dont know how you would go about getting rid of them unless you try this.

I get these on a regular basis.I just put the phone down and leave it to the answerphone. They soon give up.

[arcimedes]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

I get these on a regular basis.I just put the phone down and leave it to the answerphone. They soon give up.

Having been on several share registers I get quite a few from various sources I find a lot have made up numbers (an example being 049) or unobtainable. They do seem to come in batches and ten go quiet for a while. I am trying then silent treatment now. When I pick the phone up I wait until they something and then leave the phone for a minute.

Its a waste of time talking to them

[Matty_]

This is the type of situation i like to use my air horn, scares the cat though