Heads Up on A Windows Scam

Al Launier

Member
Messages
1,683
Location
Bedford, NH
A cryptic summary of what went down today when I received a phone call from a "MS Windows" tech to alert me to problems I was having & causing on their server. I've noted the events as best a I can recall, but these days I forget sooner rather than later.
If this should happen to you, be careful!

1. Monday September 30, 2013
2. Received call from MS Windows Tech Dept,
3. Stated tha their servers were getting overloaded with many error & warning messages from me & others.
4. Stated this was caused by hackers accessing my PC & causing viruses to affect Windows that caused crashes, freeze-ups, etc.
5. Told them I had experienced these problems for several months & had the local Best Buy Geek Squad service the PC for viruses, etc. Had to bring it back to them several times. Short term fix, then problems would repeat. PC running well since last fix on 9/23rd.
6. She stated that the Geek Squad only treated Internet viruses, not Windows viruses.
7. Questioned her identity & she gave me her name as Krystal Williams, Phoenix, AZ & 888-997-1634 number to call.
8. Asked if she could show me where all the error/warning messages were stored on my PC.
9. Assigned me an ID of 362-768-202 & a PW of 4963.
10.Following may be out of sequence & not totally recalled, difficult to keep up, plus I had difficulty understanding her (Indian).
11.Control Panel - User Accounts - don't recall where this led to, but I do recall at that point removing the spare hard drive (backup files) out of the PC.
12.Start-Run-Prefetch virus - don't recall where this led to.
13.config.sys to SysConfig to Services for list of errors & warnings. Total of 17,266. Some were stopped, some were running
14.Took me to Chrome://downloads www.TeamViewerQS en.exe
15.She walked me through the sequences to show me the list of errors & warnings they had received on their server. I stated again that a Geek Squad tech had recently serviced my PC & it was running well, so why should I be concerned about a list of 17,266 errors/warnings.
16.She switched me to the Windows Tech Dept. A "tech" took over where she left off.
17.Asked for his name, another Indian & said his name was "Smith". uh oh scam flag starting to wave??? Asked for his first name & he said it was Daniel (for some reason I was expecting him to say John):
18.He took me to:
19.www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx
a. Download TeamViewer
b. Join Remote Control Session
c. Chrome://downloads
d. TeamViewerQS en.exe
e. Ran http://downloadus3.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewerQS_en.exe
20.I can no longer get to the list of errors/warnings that appeared on my PC when she & he showed them to me. But, he stated that I would continue to have crashing/freeze-up problems if I didn't have the error/warnings removed.
21.He then started telling me that the 2-year Windows Warranty had expired. I told him I didn't recall any such warranty. He then said they could offer me a renewed Windows Warranty to protect against these problems. Scam flag getting bigger. So, I asked about his offer.
22.1 yr plan $149 3 mos free
23.2 yr plan $249 6 mos free & lifelong MS Antivirus
24.3 yr plan $349 9 mos free & lifelong MS Antivirus
25.4 yr plan $409 1 year free & lifelong MS Antivirus & service
26.At this point I not only was suspicious, but didn't want to give out any credit card, or other personal info.
27.He told me to call the 888-997-1635 if I had any more problems.
28.I immediately called the Best Buy Geek Squad, conveyed what had just happened & if this was a scam. Yes it was. He said that Windows never calls you, instead you call them.
29.I'm bring my PC to the Geek Squad tomorrow for them to thoroughly check out the computer to see if anything was left on it that shouldn't be there.
 
My Steps for dealing with any one who calls me on the phone that I don't know personally.

1) Hang up.

But seriously, Never let someone you didn't call take control of your pc like that.

You did good not giving them any personal numbers or credit card numbers.

You will do even better getting it to the geek guys to make sure these people didn't install anything on your pc while they had access.
 
Interesting. I got one of those calls today. Said he was calling from "Windows Tech." Heavy India/Paki accent. I hung up on him within fifteen seconds.
 
The fact that you installed Team Viewer is a bad, bad thing. You basically opened your front door and invited the crooks in. Hopefully the Geek Squad kids know to uninstall Team Viewer as the first step of diagnosing any problems.

Team Viewer itself is a good program - I use it myself - but you want to make sure you know and trust the person you allow to connect to your computer.
 
Just to add a bit:
When they first called, they mentioned the types of trouble I had been having and they were exactly right: I had been crashing & freezing up for the past several months, exactly as they described. Also, for the past several months, a MS window would pop up stating an error had been encountered & they were trying to find a solution. Sometimes they did find one, other times they didn't.
SO, what they told me at the beginning of the call was very believable as it happened just as they described. Makes me wonder now if they might have been the culprits to begin with, setting things up for a future scam call???

Also, I've called NORTON in the past to troubleshoot problems. They took remote control of my PC, resolved the problem, cleaned it up, & loaded Norton Power Erase on it for future use. So, this all sounded very familiar. The MAIN difference being that I called them, they didn't call me.

My last communique for several days as my PC is about to head out to the Geek Squad. Cheers everyone!
 
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Seems to me that's kind of like those mind reading acts. A lot of peoples pcs act up from time to time.
So it sounds reasonable when they say things like that. The truth is that with a few simple free programs, you can keep your own pc running in good shape.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
 
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57343820-285/how-to-keep-your-windows-computer-running-smoothly/

That link has some good general advice.

In general, the also be careful what you click on. If you get a popup, don't ever click a button in it. Try to escape out of it, or close it's Window first. If that fails shut down your browser process via the task manager.

Learn to recognize and avoid phasing schemes.

You guys are smart and can do this stuff. Just learn to use and maintain your computer like you would any other tool
 
Be careful not to have more than one anti-virus software on your computer at the same time. They can/will conflict with each other & cause problems. Have experienced this & was advised of this by Geek Squad tech & by others as we'll.
 
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