Caller ID said unavailable but I asked him for a number I could call him back and he gave me 214-272-0277. Said he was from computer maintenance and that my computer was sending viruses and was soon going to crash. I told him I needed to check with my IT dept first. He insisted the issue was with my personal computer. When I told him I only had a work computer he hung up.
Caller ID said unavailable but I asked him for a number I could call him back and he gave me 214-272-0277. Said he was from computer maintenance and that my computer was sending viruses and was soon going to crash. I told him I needed to check with my IT dept first. He insisted the issue was with my personal computer. When I told him I only had a work computer he hung up.
I just received three calls from this male (indian accent), providing this same telephone number, claiming my Windows program was sending out a warning message. NC.
Same as above, keep trying to tell him to quit calling with no success. Ask for a number to call him back and he gave me the 214-272-0277. They are not very bright.
My caller ID has been getting calls for a couple weeks from the same numbers, and we let the answering machine take them, so they hang up. However, last Monday evening about 9:00 PM, after my wife was asleep, I got a call from "pennsylvania" 215-889-6678, so I answered it. Someone with a very bad accent tried to tell me that my computer was sending error messages about infections. I could not understand most of what he said, so I asked for someone who spoke English. I got another who was almost as bad and told him I would hang up unless he gave me someone to talk to who speaks English. I then got someone who identified himself as Adam North and I could understand him well enough to hear him say that they are Microsoft Technical support, and that my computer may have numerous infections. (There was lots of background noise as if it was a call boiler-room.) He wanted to help me clean it up. At his direction, he took me places where I never go on my computer (by telling me what keys to depress on my keyboard), and he read me my computer's (IP number perfectly. I don't know how he got that information.) That gave him more credibility, so I started to trust him more since he claimed to be Microsoft tech support. He then took me another place called "eventvwr" where I saw dozens of warnings (yellow triangles with exclamation marks) or some red icons, and said that if I had more than 20 that my computer was in danger of locking up. I scrolled down the list of events about a week from that date and found many more than 20. He had me look at the description of the warnings and it was "koobface", which he showed me by going to Wikipedia for the definition is a virus. I didn't read the entire page of the definition, but the first paragraph made it look pretty sinister.
He mentioned some virus protection programs and claimed that he could use a program called "Microsoft Shield Protection" to clean up to three computers for a price. His prices were 3 years, $199; 5 years, $249; and lifetime, $299. I ended up purchasing a "lifetime" service contract for $300 where his company would fix or clean up my computers.
I gave him a credit card number and he printed out my Registration Order Number for Lifetime and my customer ID, and his name and his company name was "Techyankee". He also gave me their support numbers 214-272-0277 and 1-800-701-0243. He then took control of my computer by using a program www.ammyy.com, and told me not to touch my computer for about 2 hours until he finished cleaning it.
I could see him scanning and moving around on the computer and eventually he was finished about an hour and thirty minutes later.
The next day, I went to my Control Panel and Settings and the "Add and Remove Programs" window and could find no new program that had been installed the day before. I called Tech Support and asked what was the name of the program they installed to scan and remove my infections. All I got was double-talk about being able to call them anytime I had a problem and they would fix it......for lifetime.
I then went to Microsoft.com/security/online/privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx and learned that I had done everything that they advise not to do. After studying their advice, I downloaded Microsoft Safety Scanner and ran a scan that lasted ten hours. It found nothing wrong, so apparently the scammers did clean my computer.
The next day, I called my Credit card company and asked if I could prevent payment of the $300. They said it had already cleared, but offered to call Techyankee to ask for a refund. I was told to stay on the line while the call was made. About a minute later, my credit card agent came back on and said when they called the tech support number and gave my ID number, it sounded like noises in the background from a house, but the person who answered immediately said they would issue me full credit,.......and hung up. Before I could get off the phone with my credit card company, I got a call from Techyankee (the same number that had called me so many times) telling me that I would get a full refund within ten days and then they sent me an email advising the same thing.
Since then, I have cancelled my credit card and changed my password on my computer, but I wonder why they gave up so easily when my credit card company called them. What other mischief did they do to my computer?
Since then, I have run all my other programs, Malawarebytes, PC Matic, and Microsoft Security Essentials says my computer is being fully protected. All the scans have come back with no malicious infections found.
I have also given a detailed report of this to my Sheriff's office. What else do I need to do?