Threat to cut off internet

[Alaric]

No doubt many of us are familiar with the automated message in an accent which can be described as both American and computer which threatens to cut off your internet unless you press 1 or 2 to connect to their call centre.

There seems to be a variation on the theme. The initial call is now in an RP male voice. If you ignore it, there's a follow up in an RP female voice. Ignore that and you get the (Indian) call centre (obvious from the accent even if they claim otherwise). The alleged problem is that hackers have seized control of your IP address.

I've never risked taking these calls any further. Is their objective to install malware? Or is it to extract money for software to solve a non-existent problem?

[ReformedCharacter]

No doubt many of us are familiar with the automated message in an accent which can be described as both American and computer which threatens to cut off your internet unless you press 1 or 2 to connect to their call centre.

There seems to be a variation on the theme. The initial call is now in an RP male voice. If you ignore it, there's a follow up in an RP female voice. Ignore that and you get the (Indian) call centre (obvious from the accent even if they claim otherwise). The alleged problem is that hackers have seized control of your IP address.

I've never risked taking these calls any further. Is their objective to install malware? Or is it to extract money for software to solve a non-existent problem?

It's to install remote control software and thereby watch your online banking activities etc.

RC

[Breelander]

Is their objective to install malware? Or is it to extract money for software to solve a non-existent problem?

It's to install remote control software and thereby watch your online banking activities etc.

Not necessarily. The first step is always to convince the 'mark' that they have a problem, usually by looking in the Event Log (look at all those errors/warnings! You must have a virus!). The second step is to get them to install legitimate remote access software (TeamViewer, etc.).

Once in, after running some freely available AV tools, the 'sting' would be to lock down the machine. At this point they'd announce "This is worse than we feared, you need to buy our bespoke 'fix' software in order to get your machine back". Extortion would be their main aim, any online passwords they can pick up on the way would be a bonus.

[Itsallaguess]

The first step is always to convince the 'mark' that they have a problem, usually by looking in the Event Log (look at all those errors/warnings! You must have a virus!). The second step is to get them to install legitimate remote access software (TeamViewer, etc.).

As one of the most wide-spread initial steps in what can often be a hugely damaging process for anyone susceptible to it, I'm quite surprised that Microsoft haven't rolled out some sort of default warning window that pops up before the 'Event Log' window is opened....

Something like -

"If you have been telephoned by someone telling you there is a problem with your PC, network, or broadband connection, and they are asking you to open this window as part of the solution to it, then HANG UP NOW..."

If it was rolled out as part of a security update, but where the above warning window could then be turned off by a simple options-setting, then I think it could save a lot of people an awful lot of heartache....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[UncleEbenezer]

As one of the most wide-spread initial steps in what can often be a hugely damaging process for anyone susceptible to it, I'm quite surprised that Microsoft haven't rolled out some sort of default warning window that pops up before the 'Event Log' window is opened....
Itsallaguess

If MS were to do that, you can be sure the callers would update their script to avoid that step and find another line.

Defence needs to be in education: don't take *any* phone calls telling you to do things to your PC. Otherwise you're just chasing a moving target.

[JohnB]

They never get very far looking at my /var/log/syslog