5 ms·

Anatomy of a virus call centre scam

62 points by aymeric 15y ago

nekojima 15y ago
My mother, who is almost 70, received four of these calls last year. The first time she initially panicked, but wrote down a lot of information, including a callback number and they number they were calling from, during the thirty minutes she kept them talking. She then called the local police and emailed Microsoft with the information she had, and emailed all her friends to tell them to be careful & what to watch for. Some of them had been contacted already. The next time, she kept them talking and was making intentional mistakes to keep them on the line, while using her mobile to call the local police to see if they could do something to trace the call. The next two times she talked to them for a similar amount of time as well. She must be watching too many police & spy shows. LOL
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Your mom sounds awesome. I don't think mine would fall for the scam, but she wouldn't drag them along, either. She'd just very politely (we're Canadian, after all) tell them she wasn't interested.
  - techdmn 15y ago
    I was driving along the left lane of the interstate one day, a hundred miles north of Chicago, 20 mph over the limit, passing many cars. I noticed a car behind me in the left lane, not terribly close, but who hadn't been there before. I assumed he was catching me quick, and started looking for a gap in the right lane. I checked my mirror again a second later, he hadn't gotten any closer. I thought this odd, but continued in the left lane - the right lane was packed, and he was still a solid ten or fifteen car lengths behind me. After a minute of this I found a three car length gap in the right lane, and pulled over anyway. He was past in a flash. Canadian plates. Not that he didn't want to get around me, he was just too polite to tailgate. :)
InclinedPlane 15y ago
I'm sure if this guy stayed on the line long enough he would have overhead the sounds of helicopters dropping police on these guys to take them into custody.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
felipemnoa 15y ago
What I find surprising is that people still answer unknown numbers. I know plenty of people in their 70s that are pretty computer illiterate but are still savvy enough to screen calls. If it is not somebody you know then your first assumption should be that it is just probably somebody trying to separate you from your money. Odds are that you will be correct. If it is important they will leave a message. If in the voicemail they claim to be from your bank or some institution you have a relationship with then look up their number on their website and call them.
- swang 15y ago
  A lot of scams now have numbers that are spoofed. I get tons of calls from weird numbers (weird as in I live in LA, don't know anyone in the Midwest and it's a number with an Ohio area code) and whenever I listen to the voicemail its always a robocaller (sometimes in Spanish too, which is odd).
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
johnx123-up 15y ago
I think it's an old scam http://blog.reverseaustralia.com/indian-microsoft-telemarketing-scam/105/ http://blog.reverseaustralia.com/indian-microsoft-telemarket...
sumukh1 15y ago
It's interesting to think that this attack vector is more effective against people. They won't trust "sites" on the internet because they have been conditioned not to but will gladly follow the instructions of a "expert" over the phone. What could someone do to stop this type of behavior? Repeated conditioning might take too long. Aside: I love the ending near minute 25. > ~I'm the senior most technician here. > "Could you help me out? What does the Event Log do?" > "Uh... Event Log .... click"
Isofarro 15y ago
I've received a couple of calls of the same kind at home, typically on Saturday mornings. (I'm in the UK). Though I was very surprised to get the same call over December in South Africa at my parents house (I recognised the script). Thought it was unusual. But seeing this one is a regular issue in Australia, I wonder how many other countries these people are targetting. How wide are they reaching? I played along with the first one - despite not having a Windows machine, and when they failed to figure out I had no Windows key on my current keyboard (old style Thinkpads don't), I got put through to a different person who told me I needed to see a doctor because I was blind, and then he hung up on me. In later calls one of them was shocked I declined to follow their instructions, claiming it was a free service check. Another one got very nasty and abusive.
- kokey 15y ago
  Thanks for mentioning that this is happening in South Africa, since I recently got my mother a land line there. That said, her laptop is so bad and used for so little that it would be funny to see them trying to do anything with it.
dazbradbury 15y ago
I've never received one of these calls, but someone should set up a VM and let them in. See what they do exactly, and then report it. If you could get enough info on them, am sure the central office could be taken down very quickly, and the owners arrested. Just a thought anyway, exposing them is an excellent first step though, and am sure keeping them on the line is slowing them down a little.
jrabone 15y ago
Link in the article comments to http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/21/microsoft-dumps-partner-telephone-support-scam/ http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/21/microsoft-dumps-p... is worth reading. Amazing that someone would have the balls to try this, but I suppose there are no penalties for what amounts to abuse of privileges. I know MS tightened up on some aspects of the partner scheme (presumably to stop everyone and his dog using it as a way to get free copies of Windows). So, who owns Comantra? There needs to be an international register of people unfit to own companies, or whose companies one shouldn't do business with. In the UK, Companies House records the really bad guys who've managed to get struck off as directors, but this kind of scam needs to get you on a little list too.
arethuza 15y ago
Are there anti-spam filters for landlines?
JacobAldridge 15y ago
I've received one of these as well (UK). They told me my ISP had reported my computers was visiting sites with viruses, and got quite frustrated when I asked them who my ISP was and on which device they were reported? Then they hung up.

62 points by aymeric 15y ago

My mother, who is almost 70, received four of these calls last year. The first time she initially panicked, but wrote down a lot of information, including a callback number and they number they were calling from, during the thirty minutes she kept them talking. She then called the local police and emailed Microsoft with the information she had, and emailed all her friends to tell them to be careful & what to watch for. Some of them had been contacted already. The next time, she kept them talking and was making intentional mistakes to keep them on the line, while using her mobile to call the local police to see if they could do something to trace the call. The next two times she talked to them for a similar amount of time as well. She must be watching too many police & spy shows. LOL

redthrowaway 15y ago
Your mom sounds awesome. I don't think mine would fall for the scam, but she wouldn't drag them along, either. She'd just very politely (we're Canadian, after all) tell them she wasn't interested.
- techdmn 15y ago
  I was driving along the left lane of the interstate one day, a hundred miles north of Chicago, 20 mph over the limit, passing many cars. I noticed a car behind me in the left lane, not terribly close, but who hadn't been there before. I assumed he was catching me quick, and started looking for a gap in the right lane. I checked my mirror again a second later, he hadn't gotten any closer. I thought this odd, but continued in the left lane - the right lane was packed, and he was still a solid ten or fifteen car lengths behind me. After a minute of this I found a three car length gap in the right lane, and pulled over anyway. He was past in a flash. Canadian plates. Not that he didn't want to get around me, he was just too polite to tailgate. :)

InclinedPlane 15y ago

I'm sure if this guy stayed on the line long enough he would have overhead the sounds of helicopters dropping police on these guys to take them into custody.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

felipemnoa 15y ago

What I find surprising is that people still answer unknown numbers. I know plenty of people in their 70s that are pretty computer illiterate but are still savvy enough to screen calls. If it is not somebody you know then your first assumption should be that it is just probably somebody trying to separate you from your money. Odds are that you will be correct. If it is important they will leave a message. If in the voicemail they claim to be from your bank or some institution you have a relationship with then look up their number on their website and call them.

swang 15y ago
A lot of scams now have numbers that are spoofed. I get tons of calls from weird numbers (weird as in I live in LA, don't know anyone in the Midwest and it's a number with an Ohio area code) and whenever I listen to the voicemail its always a robocaller (sometimes in Spanish too, which is odd).

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

johnx123-up 15y ago

I think it's an old scam http://blog.reverseaustralia.com/indian-microsoft-telemarketing-scam/105/ http://blog.reverseaustralia.com/indian-microsoft-telemarket...

sumukh1 15y ago

It's interesting to think that this attack vector is more effective against people. They won't trust "sites" on the internet because they have been conditioned not to but will gladly follow the instructions of a "expert" over the phone. What could someone do to stop this type of behavior? Repeated conditioning might take too long. Aside: I love the ending near minute 25. > ~I'm the senior most technician here. > "Could you help me out? What does the Event Log do?" > "Uh... Event Log .... click"

Isofarro 15y ago

I've received a couple of calls of the same kind at home, typically on Saturday mornings. (I'm in the UK). Though I was very surprised to get the same call over December in South Africa at my parents house (I recognised the script). Thought it was unusual. But seeing this one is a regular issue in Australia, I wonder how many other countries these people are targetting. How wide are they reaching? I played along with the first one - despite not having a Windows machine, and when they failed to figure out I had no Windows key on my current keyboard (old style Thinkpads don't), I got put through to a different person who told me I needed to see a doctor because I was blind, and then he hung up on me. In later calls one of them was shocked I declined to follow their instructions, claiming it was a free service check. Another one got very nasty and abusive.

kokey 15y ago
Thanks for mentioning that this is happening in South Africa, since I recently got my mother a land line there. That said, her laptop is so bad and used for so little that it would be funny to see them trying to do anything with it.

dazbradbury 15y ago

I've never received one of these calls, but someone should set up a VM and let them in. See what they do exactly, and then report it. If you could get enough info on them, am sure the central office could be taken down very quickly, and the owners arrested. Just a thought anyway, exposing them is an excellent first step though, and am sure keeping them on the line is slowing them down a little.

jrabone 15y ago

Link in the article comments to http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/21/microsoft-dumps-partner-telephone-support-scam/ http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/21/microsoft-dumps-p... is worth reading. Amazing that someone would have the balls to try this, but I suppose there are no penalties for what amounts to abuse of privileges. I know MS tightened up on some aspects of the partner scheme (presumably to stop everyone and his dog using it as a way to get free copies of Windows). So, who owns Comantra? There needs to be an international register of people unfit to own companies, or whose companies one shouldn't do business with. In the UK, Companies House records the really bad guys who've managed to get struck off as directors, but this kind of scam needs to get you on a little list too.

arethuza 15y ago

Are there anti-spam filters for landlines?

JacobAldridge 15y ago

I've received one of these as well (UK). They told me my ISP had reported my computers was visiting sites with viruses, and got quite frustrated when I asked them who my ISP was and on which device they were reported? Then they hung up.