Is this for real?
An Australian newspaper reports that a 93-year-old woman has been scammed by criminals who rang her up, pretending to be Microsoft, and told her that she had a virus infection on her computer.
These scams, of course, are nothing new and we've warned users about them before.
The reason why this one caught my eye is the tall story that the criminals used to fleece Ailsa Hamblin, of Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne.
According to the media reports:
Mrs Hamblin was told recent heavy rain and storms had caused more computer viruses to circulate.
Yes, you read that right.
They said that bad weather could help computer viruses to spread. (Is this some kind of cloud-based security issue? Maybe they meant the Storm virus?)
And what's more (and seemingly without any pun intended), the report continues:
"It's high-pressure salesmanship," Mrs Hamblin said.
Meteorological jokes aside, we have to recognise that these fake tech support calls claiming that PCs belonging to computer users have fallen foul of malware are a significant problem.
As Sophos explained in a recent podcast, it can be hard for vulnerable people to tell the difference between a legitimate phone call and someone trying to scam you:
Make sure that your family and friends are on their guard against suspicious tech support calls telling them about infections on their computer - even if the callers do claim to be from Microsoft. It only takes a lapse of common sense for you to hand your credit card details straight down the line to a criminal.
Oh, and read the full story over on the Herald Sun website of how scammers are using the weather as an excuse for malware infections.
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a squirrel pissed in the computer...oh wait, that was legitimate...
I'm guessing thats a new example of Cloud Computing.... ;)
Didn't the article already make that quip?
Some ISP's don't help the situation. I recieved a call from mine and they got quite irrate because I refused to confirm my account details to them. Unless I made the call in the first place, I never pass out information.
I declined the call, at the point of being threatened with "you won't be able to obtain our special offer, if you don't confirm your details now". That just sounded way too dodgy to me! I called the ISP back on a number I have for them and they confirmed that it was their call centre and low and behold the offer was still available! Such tactics can and clearly are being used by scammers to fish, so why these companies are using this line as part of their sales tactic is totally beyond me.
"Such tactics can and clearly are being used by scammers to fish, so why these companies are using this line as part of their sales tactic is totally beyond me. "
Likely they're using this line because they've found it works -- just like it does for the scammers.
1-0 to me then ;-)
I have to say, having warnings pop up on FB from Sophos helps to keep security at the front of my mind. It's just a shame that sharing the information with friends doesn't get accepted as quickly as some of the rogue apps out there. As for the ISP, they're fired!
Typical emotional sales tactics, make some sort of time limit (even is it is ultimately bogus) and people will be much more likely to buy. But to ask for details over the phone when they made the call is ridiculous, it's setting a completely wrong example.
Aunty GLADOS? I think if GLADOS gets a virus we're in serious trouble.
Graham Cluley ...i would just say wow for your sophos blog ...well i really liked each of its story about hacks and scams ..lots of digg and likes already done for this blog by many people so i think i will be a regular reader of this blog
Any way this is my first visit
"It's high-pressure salesmanship"
Isn't heavy rain caused by low pressure?
Hi thanks for this, I got a call from this crowd. as the guy asked me to type in certain letters I was writing them down. The call was via landline, my internet connection is mobile. When i realised the letters made up LOG ME IN. I pulled the mobile connection and told the guy it had broken down. By the time he rang back in 15 minutes I had my 'computer savvy son listening on the mobile phone, he googled it and warned me it was a scam. I'm in Ireland so its widespread.