Strange Phone Call

[everton66]

My Dad got a phone call this morning. He thinks it was from a Manchester number based on the caller ID and he spoke to a gentleman with an Asian accent.

The man asked my Dad to confirm his surname and address. In both cases the man already knew this information and simply asked my Dad to confirm if his name was Mr W and that his address was X. He is not ex-directory so I guess anybody could get this data.

The man then asked my Dad if he used Windows, to which my Dad answered "yes". He then went on to advise my Dad that there was a computer virus sweeping the North West. At this point the line went dead. A few minutes later the guy called back again and asked my Dad if his computer was on line. My Dad said he would not do anyting without knowing who this guy was, and terminated the call. There has been no further call.

Has anybody heard anything about this? Is my Dad's PC at risk in any way?

Thanks,

E66

[silver]

have had similar calls and I doubt your dad's pc has any kind of issue,.

calls we've had are along the lines of pretending they are working for microsoft and say "your computer is running slowly you need to do X to fix it" - of course they can't even tell me what OS my computer is running which is kinda funny..

[tommy t]

Sounds like someone phishing for information, to possibly be used in a future scam, if your dad still has the number, maybe passing it to the police, and ringing bt to find out their i.d, is what i would be thinking of

[K9dws]

I had a call like that some time ago, when I started asking some awkward questions he got flustered and hung up.

[everton66]

Thanks guys.

[silver]

just had another one,. it went like this

"hello mr xxxx, I am calling from the computer technical support, there's a virus spreading around computers in Bournemouth and you might be infected"
..
asked me to put computer online then passed me to the engineering department
..
guy asks if I can see the start menu, so I say no, then asks if I can see the windows logo, say no again, he then asks if I'm on an apple mac, I say yes and he hangs up

normally I wouldn't bother staying on the line and I guess I could have played along further but it should be illegal to call ppl in this way as it's somewhat misleading

they must have got name and location and home phone number from somewhere,. but it's easy enough to find in the phonebook

[everton66]

What do you think the scam is for? Can they get into a PC in that way - I thought you would have to approve their connection.

[silver]

I suspect they ask you to login to a website and then get you to run some fake anti-malware product, that tells you your computer is infected and they charge you to remove the 'infection'

I didn't really want to load a website they directed me to,. but perhaps next time I will go along a bit further to at least get the url

[everton66]

I'm also on a Mac with no anti virus software. Do you recommend I get some?

[silver]

I'm not familar with macs but in general they are less suseptible to malware due to their design and that most malware is written to target windoz PCs (since they are more common)

main thing to do is keep everything updated (especially browser software) and don't click on links in emails,. so if you get an email pretending to be from your bank (or paypal / ebay etc) that says you need to login - call the bank if not sure and if you do login to your bank website type the url into the browser don't use a link from an email

most is common sense but most attacks require you to visit a website or download and run some software so just be careful

I don't know what AV products exist for a mac, perhaps find a good mac user forum and see what other ppl are using (if anything) on windows there's free options, we're using the free version of avast

[janitor1999]

Use Clamxav, use it when ever i remember, about every few months.

[everton66]

Thanks

[silver]

mike posted about the cold call scam that's worth reading about The unstoppable "tech support" scam

[Prospero]

i had a good laugh when they told me my PC is infected with a dangerous virus. lol. i may not be a computer pro but this.... some tech support firm operating on the behalf of microsoft?

it's not the first number using this scheme. found a couple on http://www.tellows.co.uk . all sorts of scammer numbers are listed there. might be worth a look.

cheerz