Another Reminder: Do Not Fall for Phone Scams

Phone Scams – a reminder
All Windows Users

Even after writing about phone scams many times, it never fails that we get two or three emails every week from people who were scammed by telephone calls that supposed came from Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, etc. in which someone told them their computers were:

1. Spreading malware
2. Infected with malware
3. Had been hacked
4. Had been comprised by viruses and/or Trojans

Folks…friends… people… listen to us. NO ONE and NO legitimate company is going to call you to tell you your computer is infected. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.

If anyone calls you and tells you that your computer is infected — HANG UP. If you want to go through the hassle of reporting it to the police — that’s up to you — but our job is to protect you. Do not talk to these people. NEVER. Especially do not let them “connect to your computer” to implement fixes. They’ll implement a backdoor on your computer so their criminal group can access your PC — or (and more likely) they’ll charge you $129 or more to “repair” the infection you never had to begin with. Plus they’ll ask you to pay by credit card — which opens a whole other set of worries.

We’ve heard from over a dozen subscribers in the last two weeks who’ve had this happen to them. A few of them fell for it and actually allowed someone they didn’t know, to access their computers remotely to know Heaven knows what to their computers. This is a fact. We’ve worked on computers which have been compromised this way.

And one other thing. If you get call from someone who claims to be from, let’s say, Yahoo Tech Support, and you think you’re going to be wise and look up the number and call them back — you might get scammed anyway. You might see something like http://yahootechsupport.gonnascamyou.com/ and see a list of “Yahoo Support” numbers But the domain name is only what shows right before the .com/.net/.org etc. The first part of the URL can be a sub domain –and any domain owner can make a sub domain. See http://halloween.thundercloud.net/ . It’s still Thundercloud.net — no matter what it says before thundercloud.net.

Be careful. And remember NO ONE and NO LEGITIMATE company is going to call you to warn you that your computer is infected with anything. No legitimate company is going to call you and tell you that your computer is spreading spam or malware, not even if your computer is infected – not even if it is spreading spam. Not even if it is spreading malware or viruses.

Please be careful. If anyone calls you to tell you that you have a problem with your PC…Hang up. Do not talk to them, and above all do not allow anyone who calls you out of the b lue to connect to your PC remotely. NEVER.

NEVER!

NEVER!