what's this scam?

[Dramx]

I'm helping my mother with her Win 7 system. She had an odd thing happen yesterday. She gets a call from someone with an Indian/Paki accent saying that her computer is broken, but they can help fit it. Puzzled, she goes over to her machine and, holy moley, there is a prominent warning message there that her system won't work. I think the scam is that she is supposed to buy software that will "fix" it. She politely declines and seeks help (me). Well, turns out that nothing is wrong that we can later see.

But how does this work? Presumably she downloaded something bad that pops up the warning, and then calls Mahmood to tell her give her a call and offer to sell some help.

I assume this is some well known online scam with some malware she accidentally downloaded. Name? Removal instructions? She didn't recall the exact message that popped up.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Dramx,
Welcome to SF. And yes it's a scam and it almost worked. So glad you're there for your family and especially your mom and her new computer. Good job. It saddens me to hear about these misguided jerk wads preying on people.

 

[Dramx]

Now, I gather this is a variant of the "Indian Phonescam". But how did they make that message pop up? At least I was told there was such a message that popped up ...

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Maybe someone here will have more direct knowledge as to the in's and out's of this scam.