Frequent calls form men with heavy accents claiming to work for Microsoft and offering to take care of a virus on my computer to keep out hackers. I allowed him access to my computer and my computer has been a mess since,. Don't know if this is related, but we then had someone get our credit card number and use it fraudulently. Just got another call offering me a refund for my computer protection services that I paid to them. They tried to access my computer but I was smarter this time.
Since the scammers accessed the computer, they probably did one or more of the following:
• Disabled the anti-virus software
• Added nasty malware to the computer
• Copied the Contact List (so they can spam/email your soon-to-be ex-friends)
• Copied any financial data or passwords they could find
• Compromised your ID
• "Zombied" the computer, so it would respond to THEIR commands sent via internet
• Deleted some important files
• Asked for money to repair the damage they caused
What can you do immediately after such an attack?
1. Pull the cables on the computer, so it cannot access the internet.
2. Change ALL passwords stored on the computer
3. Run FULL malware scans on the computer, in "SAFE" mode!
4. Change the passwords again, particularly if the malware scans showed anything
5. Inform your bank and credit card companies
6. Sign up for credit monitoring, and check the status frequently
7. You may have to bring the computer to a local repair shop, and tell them the story.
8. Tell friends what happened, so they can be aware of strange emails from you
9. Plug in the cables only AFTER all the above have been done
10. Change the passwords on all online accounts. Even better - access a "safe", uninfected computer, and chance your online account passwords RIGHT NOW.
You fell for one scam, and might be susceptible to others mentioned on this site:
http://phonehelp.2truth.com/facts_rev.html
Read that info to educate and help protect yourself!
Honest computer companies do NOT cold-call people, or cause popups from websites to tell them their computers need fixing!
Some scammers even have websites.
Read the info at these links.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Cold-Call-Tech ... on-150170.shtml
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams
Lesson:
If your computer needs fixing, bring it to a local repair shop
Remember to return here, to 800notes.com, after you look at any of the information at the above sites, either to post more information, or to let us know you avoided the scam or fixed the computer correctly.