Windows 7: Phone call PC SCAM

Iforgot · 18 Jun 2011

I received an interesting call today, Saturday approx 7pm, about possible infections in my pc.
A person (with an Indian accent) called me by phone and said he worked for "eprotectionz" and that he believed my pc was contaminated by viruses.

He asked me to do a cntrl R and look to error messages in event viewer in either Application, Security or System

If you say, yes, there are error's then he will put you over to one of there Microsoft Certified Engineers to have a look.

At this point they will be looking for remote access to your pc to fix the problems.

The return contact no given was 0258097072, and website eprotectionz.com - Global Technical Support | Computer Maintainance | Remote Technical Support | Computer Trouble-Shooting | Online Support | Instant Support but you cannot contact them till Monday.

This looks like a scam............

Do NOT let anyone you do not know have remote access to your computer.

This is a warning, these people tried this a few weeks ago, and tried again today and it can be anywhere in Australia.

PS I do not know if they have anything to do with eprotectionz.com but this is the contact details they are given.
It could be any company name and number that you cannot contact to validate.
Even if you could validate the contact number/name, A legit company wouldn't cold phone canvas.

smarteyeball · 18 Jun 2011

This has been going on for a while now

Had one of these calls myself a while back. It's definitely a scam.

Iforgot · 18 Jun 2011

I had the first call a while back too.

Now It looks loke they are starting up again.

People just beware........

Borg 386 · 18 Jun 2011

The thing you have to ask yourself when you get one of these calls is:

Why would someone be calling me out of the blue to offer me PC help?

They're always trying something new....

I'm waiting for my call so that I can act like I'm very old, confused and see if I can make the guy hang up out of sheer frustration (well, I gotta have something to entertain me now that I'm on summer vay cay....)

z3r010 · 20 Jun 2011

I've just had another one of these myself, this time he claimed to be from the "Microsoft Maintenance department" but I think he could tell by my enthusiastic tone that I was out to play and hung up before I had any fun

Tews · 20 Jun 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by z3r010

I've just had another one of these myself, this time he claimed to be from the "Microsoft Maintenance department" but I think he could tell by my enthusiastic tone that I was out to play and hung up before I had any fun

You are a very mean man John!!

theog · 20 Jun 2011

My Charlotte had one last week, told the chap, I have a Dad for that.

Golden · 20 Jun 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by z3r010

I've just had another one of these myself, this time he claimed to be from the "Microsoft Maintenance department" but I think he could tell by my enthusiastic tone that I was out to play and hung up before I had any fun

Awwww.....unlucky. The conversation would have made an epic thread

JMH · 20 Jun 2011

Quote:

We’ve discovered this telephone scam is aimed at English-speaking countries, including North America and the United Kingdom. The callers pretend to be from Microsoft and try to sell the victim something, direct them to a specific website, asked for remote access, to install software, a credit card number, or run a bogus security scan that showed an infection. The Trustworthy Computing Team conducted a survey of 7,000 people, and found that more than 1,000 people had received calls. Of those 1,000 people, 22 percent of people fell for the scam (234 people total), and 184 of those lost money - on average, more than $800.
You can check out some tips for avoiding phone scams here, but we want to remind you will never receive a legitimate call from Microsoft or our partners to charge you for computer fixes. If someone does call you claiming to be from Microsoft:

Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer.
Never provide your credit card or financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support if you did not initiate the call to Microsoft first.
Ask upfront if you are required to purchase software or pay a fee or subscription associated with the "service." If there is, hang up.
Take the caller's information down and immediately report it to your local authorities. If you think you’ve been the victim of a scam, check out these tips that can help you protect your money and identity.

Windows Security Blog

stacey · 09 Jul 2011

I too just recieved one of these calls. Being extra tired I was more gullable than normal so I let it get right up to the invoice payment before I realised it was a scam!!!!

It was a call from an indian man that said he was based in sydney for a company called EPROTECTIONZ which are the only security company that is able to detect a new virus that has spread right across the UK and US and guess what - it was days away from completely destroying my computer.

'David Morrison' the technician set up all these alerts saying my computer was incredibly infected and my Norton Anti Virus despite being up to date could not fix this problem. He then gave me a contact number which was 02 5809 7072 whist he installed a program named IObit. 'David' then put me through to his 'senior technical officer' who's name was - wait for it - 'Jamal Fingers'

At this point I'd come to my senses despite 'jamal' giving me the same contact number with his extension of 4408 that he said he could be contacted on 24hrs a day. He started getting a bit nervy when I told him I couldn't pay the invoice because my credit card was not nearby and I would have to do it later when I returned from my 'office'. He then tried to be personal and asked me why I was working so late on a saturday and why was I so tired. I gave him a false mobile number as the only number I could be contacted on to confirm a later payment which I will certainly not make. $265.98 for a three year subscription to EPROTECTIONZ when I already had purchased up to date security from a reputable company - I don't think so!

When I was off the line I called the number I was given and the 24hr service was not correct so confirming my suspicions I then deleted the IObit program and called Norton who ran a scan over my computer and it is safe again.

Hopefully nobody will be as gullable as me!!

Windows 7: Phone call PC SCAM

Phone call PC SCAM problems?