Security Warning

Hi people,

Im not sure where is best to put this were it will get the most views but I have recently had exposure to what I believe to be quite a serious securtiy threat that people need to be aware of. I think this is more prevelent in Europe than the US but it is important that people are aware of it.

My brother recently received un unexpected call claiming to be from a Microsoft Support Team. They Asked to speak to my brother by name and confirmed his address and phone number on the phone. They then advise that they have been monitoring his PC remotely and advise that it has been infected by malware and is in a critical state. They asked if he could go to his PC and told him that he would need to download some security patches/malware removal software.

Up until now my brother had been convinced that this was a genuine call however he became more suspicious and quized the caller further. they just repeated that his computer was in a critical state and was about to fail and it was imperitive that this software was installed. They also advised that all his data would be lost and basically made out that the PC would be useless if he did not install it. Eventually my brother told them that he did not believe who they were and hung up but it is my belief that this is a ploy to get people to install some form of key logger or other similar malware to steal data.

I thought this would probably be an isolated case but my parents who live in Portugal received a call from an unknown number in the UK. I am currently on holiday with them so being curious decided to put the number into google and it appears that this is the same people doing the same scam. They have supposedly called people in Finland, Russia and the UK and my parents in Portugal.

Please be aware of anyone calling claiming to be from any company who asks you to install software.

 

Microsoft one again warned about that in their today's newsletter that I signed up for years ago.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/securitytipstalk/archive/2011/06/13/report-the-microsoft-phone-scam.aspx

 

Yup pretty old scam now. My brother has had two of them now he smelled something fishy and phoned me to ask about it and I confirmed it was a scam even though I'd never heard of the scam before I know Microsoft don't do that.The only reason he thought twice about it was due to buying a laptop a few weeks previous.

He's had a similar call again and hung up and then low and behold I got one Same people,I laughed a bit then hung up.All three times were international calls from Indian call centres and and spread over about a year and half,probably six months since I received the last call.

In each instance they say there's a problem with the computer then direct you to website that installs malware then they charge you to remove it.

I'm actually considering completely blocking inbound calls from India:-D Only problem is most tech support is from Indian call centres...

 

This story reminds me of several calls I received claiming that they could reduce the interest rate on my credit card.
The caller said that this was my last chance, that the offer would soon expire and that this was related to the Financial Stimulus.

WOW!
It was a more generic call, did not ask for me by name and never identified which credit card it would apply to.
I reported the call to proper authorities.

Then there was the Microsoft Security Patch emails, designed to look like an authentic Microsoft publication.
The email claimed that the Attachment was a needed patch for All of my installed Microsoft software.
I got about half a dozen of those, each with an attachment of about 155 to 165 kilobytes.

 

I have heard of the Microsoft Scam here in Australia recently. But personally have not received a call.

Bazza