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The
scammers claiming to call you from "Windows Support Services"
or "Microsoft Support" are still active!
We
are usually cautious about internet and telephone scams as
news of them tends to circulate long after the threat has
died down or has been stopped. In this case the report from
Mike Lane in mid December 2010 was based on a scam attempt
he received. But another report we received yesterday shows
this scam is still very active.
The new report came from Jimmy Johns who found our
online NEWS item after he had put the phone down of the scammers
and Googled the telephone number they had given to "authenticate"
the person who had called him claiming to be from "Microsoft
Support". Jimmy is not a V8 member but was clearly
grateful for our online warning of these scumbags' activities
If anyone has any information or an update on this scam, please
let us know. Email
See our earlier NEWS item with our warning of this scam. More
Posted: 300111
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This
scam is still very active!
Yesterday we received a report from Jimmy Johns
saying "Just had a scam call identical to the
one you warn about. Caller said he was "David
Wilson" and when I asked for a phone number
I could call to verify he was with Microsoft Support
he gave me: 0208 123 9216. I called the number and
a woman "confirmed" it was Microsoft Support
and that David Wilson was an employee. Both she
and he spoke with Indian accents. Fortunately I
didn't type in the web address he asked me to connect
to and instead Googled the phone number which brought
me to your warning.
Thanks, much appreciated." |
How
does the scam work?
Mike Lane explained back in December 2010: I received
a call on my home-office landline which, although
I realised straight away was not genuine, I decided
to go along with it to ascertain what the caller
was trying to achieve.
He
identified himself as ‘David Wilson’
(but with an Asian accent) from ‘Windows
Support Services’ and tried to tell me
that I had inadvertently downloaded a malicious
file onto my PC that no Anti-Virus software would
be able to identify or eradicate. I asked him to
verify his identity and he gave me his ‘office’
number as 0208 123 9216 and employee ID as 8600052.
He then asked me to right-click on the ‘My
Computer’ Icon on my PC desktop and via the
‘Computer Management’ window tried to
suggest that various files in ‘Event Viewer/Applications’
flagged with red markers were ‘evidence’
of theses so-called ‘malicious files’.
He
then advised that the only way to clean these files
was by connecting to a Microsoft Certified Engineer
and he tried to get me to type into the command
line in my ‘Start’ menu ‘www.letmein123.com’
Do not contact that website
At this stage I
made an excuse that my internet connection wasn’t
working and I was too busy to restart my PC. I
then spoke to a colleague in our IT Department who
informed me that by connecting to that website it
would have allowed the ‘other party’ full
access to my PC. Thankfully
I am very cautious about this type of call and recognise
the dangers – others may not be! Please be
aware of this scam.
The key message is do not
let them in! |
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