It seems that the amount of Microsoft support scams is increasing again, a little reminder for everyone:
DO not try this at home (without knowing what you do..)
How to keep busy in Corona time.....
Today I had so much fun,...
I have spent 3 hours of my too much free time, laughing my socks off, to waste 3 hours of the time of some Indian scammers..
We have in Finland now again some invasion by phone from a "Microsoft support scam" (see youtube Jim Browning and Perogi for example, "scambaiter" is a good one too).
The Indian (accent) scammers called me yesterday (it began with a woman which then quickly was transferred to a man that said he is technical support).
However I had no suitable computer ready for him to screw up, so when they asked if I could go to my PC I had to ask them to call me back today.
So I prepared an old laptop which is running a program called "Deep Freeze" which makes everything you do after starting it up, disappear when you restart the laptop, like nothing happened and nothing is saved.
This is a nice function in case they put a virus on your PC or ransomware. Restart and all problems gone...
So I waited today for their call and they called.
I made a video of it with an old fashioned video camera, mainly for the sound and a little idea of what they try to do on your computer when you let them in.
I will edit the video because 3 hours is a bit too much..
and most of the time it was waiting anyway (and talking bullsh*t). Then I will post it to youtube and post the link maybe here... if I feel it is useful.
This is basically how the scam works:
They call you, then they try, with some stupid story, to convince you, you are having a problem on your PC and that you have been hacked...
It is important that you believe you have been hacked because it is the basis of their scam... while not so obvious in the beginning yet.
They will install several remote control programs so if they lose one connection, they might have another way to access your PC.
Then they will try to convince you that they are going to help you install safety features... nothing actually happens but the lazy bastards are just playing with you... biding their time.
They will several times ask you things about what you do on the PC and about banking, so after a while it becomes very clear they want you to log in to your bank for the reason of "installing encryption / safety measures" so they can CATCH the hackers... yeah right..
So here you can already feel their plan.... they basically want soon to get access to your bank account to manipulate you to transfer a small sum somewhere or receive such sum.
Now it can go both ways but because Finland is not so well known for it's gift cards, so it will probably not end there, but in the end of the scam you will most likely see an altered page of your bank where it seems you got too much money from them and they will ask you to transfer it back to a Thai internet bank.
This is the moment a lot of victims lose their own money instead of non existent money of the scammer they say you got too much and need to pay back...
Well I wanted to see how they would handle the inability to go to your online bank from OP or Nordea etc. on the PC
They knew the bank names very well.
I told them I have only online banking with my phone by my finger print and my phone is locked by military encryption for my safety being 71 years old
, by my Tech savvy son
... so every attempt to install or even open the apple store will give me a popup tat says this action is not permitted, please contact your administrator.
So the scammer gave up on that one and tried to get access to my gmail... he wanted me to log in and while I log in show the password... yeah right... how dumb do these guys think I am... well that went wrong because again I said, hey I use email just on my phone.. he already forgot that I said I use the laptop for email.
Then he thought I would create a new email address, with my phone number... but I said I did not want that because google sells your info, so lets use a different email address as a reference...
Then he was getting enough of it (after 3 hours) and said he would continue to work on my PC but call back later...... NOT!
After an hour I saw the mouse move and click while all remote programs were already closed,
so he used a backdoor he implanted tot he laptop, so I clicked a window away while he was there and then it stopped, I waited another 5 minutes for him to call and then restarted the laptop, undoing everything he screwed up.
So......
NEVER EVER LET MIRCROSOFT or any other for that matter get ACCESS TO YOUR PC...and certainly not open your banking page then....
Just tell them: Gadhe ki aulaad , which translates to something like: "you donkey's child" (got that one from a friend
)
So... I will start editing out the boring stuff and maybe soon upload some nice explaining video with this story (got 3 hours to cut small to let' s say 20 minutes
)
Hope everyone else had as much fun today as me..
May the force be with you all..