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09 March 2012

So my phone rings today, our landline, and a guy on the other end tells my wife that he is with a group of computer security experts and[More:] they have detected something amiss with our computer.

He then tries to guide her through some Windows commands when my wife got flustered and told her to call me. Later, he did, and I asked him who he was, what organization and he says, "Computer Cops." Where? "Orlando, Fla."

If you know so much about my computer, what kind do I have? "It's a windows operating system."

Wrong. . .we have Macs and do not have any Windows OS's on them.

He says, "Well in that case. . ." when I cut him off and said thanks, not interested.

I mean, my wife knows not to give out info, but I wonder if (if we'd had a Windows box) they could have given her any commands to type which would have compromised our computer.

Of course it was a masked number. . .

Anyone ever heard of this before?
Yes! They've called the mister a few times. The last time he kept them going on and on for half an hour or so before they gave up and it's been months since they've called. What they don't know is he's a Sys Admin and has been in IT since the late '70s. He quite enjoyed fucking around with them.
posted by deborah 09 March | 18:22
If these guys called me, I would totally fuck with them. Probably make an appointment to have them call again (unless they might give me a number to call back!) and try and get the police involved.
posted by Obscure Reference 09 March | 18:33
I feel like there was a mefi FPP about someone fucking around with these guys (well, no doubt not these ones in particular... you know what I mean). I can never find anything on mefi after the fact, though.

But anyway, yeah, this sort of thing seems to be really common.
posted by gaspode 09 March | 18:56
I got a funny call today from a woman with an Indian accent, asking if I had a windows computer... I just cut her off when she was vague about what she wanted.
posted by DarkForest 09 March | 19:20
It sounds like it's cheaper to hire some to get victims to install trojans than try to get past spam filters, or at least identity theft nets enough to hire people to spend time talking victims through an install process. Weird, and scary.
posted by filthy light thief 09 March | 19:44
Isn't that approach called "social hacking", based on the assumption that the least-effective security in any system is in the mind of the user?
posted by oneswellfoop 09 March | 19:48
The cops here put out a notice about this. They get you to give them remote access and install software that show you the "infection" then charge you anywhere from $60 to $160 to fix it.

I used to mess with these guys but now that I run my own VoIP gateway I just route their calls to the bit bin.
posted by arse_hat 09 March | 20:21
Social Engineering
posted by DarkForest 09 March | 20:50
So we now outsource our social engineering to India? Where are the hacker job creators!
posted by Obscure Reference 09 March | 21:33
Danf, are you on the do not call list?
posted by brujita 09 March | 23:31
Well, they can mask the number for you. But not for the police.
If this would happen to me I'd contact the police about these fraudsters.

I guess I hadn't hear of this because in the Netherlands there's an advantage that we speak a language that outside of our country and jurisdiction basically nobody else does. Social encryption against social engineering.
posted by jouke 09 March | 23:35
"But not for the police." Actually they can. It's trivial. But contacting the cops is good because they can use other methods to track fraud and they can get the message out.
posted by arse_hat 09 March | 23:48
Our global academic email address has been hit a lot this past two weeks with phishing scams that look totally legit. Even some IT persons have fallen for it.

Please folks, don't think someone has your best interests at heart.
It isn't paranoia if they are out to get you.
posted by lilywing13 10 March | 04:21
Even more reason for americans to move to the NL. Besides the universal health care, biking culture and soft drugs policy that is.
posted by jouke 10 March | 05:26
Brujita. . .I have signed up for so many do not call lists. Every time a new one comes out, I get on it, and it does not seem to do much good.
posted by danf 10 March | 10:07
I feel like there was a mefi FPP about someone fucking around with these guys (well, no doubt not these ones in particular... you know what I mean). I can never find anything on mefi after the fact, though.


Yeah I totally remember this. They get you to open up some obscure log that shows errors - there will always be a million errors there because they are just standard failure to shut down / registry missing a key type of shit.

Then when you have seen all these "errors", they get you to allow a remote session, they "clean" your system by purging that log and then installing some bogus shareware software. Then you pay them.

At least in the recent MeFi scam version, it wasn't super malicious beyond that - i.e., no trojans or anything... just a big fucking ripoff in getting you to buy a bunch of bogus / free antivirus shit from them.
posted by Meatbomb 10 March | 13:48
A cousin of mine got a call like this. She thought it was legit at first and spent some time on the phone before getting suspicious and telling him she wasn't comfortable with the process. He snapped at her for "wasting his time". The nerve!
posted by Orange Swan 10 March | 15:43
My son wasn't called, but he went to a website where virus popups occurred, and the popups tricked him into buying a bogus antivirus software to fix the problem for $100. That was a $100 lesson in what not to do for him. He eventually called me and I had to figure out how to clean up the computer (which wasn't too hard, even for an IT neophyte like me).
posted by Doohickie 11 March | 15:19
5:27 of totally cute and well crafted animation, "Out of Sight" || 17 Again could be the most perverse movie of all time

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