suein56 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Last evening an elderly friend rang who was tired and emotional. She said she had received a call from Microsoft telling her that her computer was infected with viruses and she was in danger of infecting others and losing her data. She believed the caller and did what was asked, giving remote access to her computer and all its relevant information. She also paid over the princely sum of 127€.The financial side is being addressed, the gendarmes will be visited to 'porte plainte', access codes will be/are being changed but ...The question now is how to disable the remote access ? She has a Win7 Home Premium laptop.Grateful for techy help in this matter please - in words of one syllable, preferably.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nectarine Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 There's a good explanation here with a screenshot:http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/29503-how-turn-off-all-remote-access-apps-services.htmlGood luck, I hate these scams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Remote access will have been shut down either by her closing it down after the session or in any case by a Windows restart so I wouldn't worry too much about that.Edit: good advice to turn it off as described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 Thank you both for your speedy replies.The sevenforums advice looks very do-able ... so huge thanks for that. Will give it a try and report back later.Said elderly friend was decimated last night when she began to take in that she might have been had ... she is beginning to pick up this morning.Even though I had advised everyone I knew about this scam some months ago after I rec'd a call, this friend said it all sounded so genuine that it unnerved her.These people are real salopards.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 And it's rife. I get this scam call on average about once a month: the most recent was a couple of days ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Unfortunately these people don't stop at this scam especially if your a business. They pull a similar one on people with B&B's claiming that they can get your business on the Ryan Air website. The thing is Ryan Air only use two companies, one for B&B's, the other for hotels. If your registered with these companies, which is free, then your there anyway. There are other scams as well like getting you at the top of Google searches on every page. To get yourself there you simply have to sign up to the Google advertising package and contract to a set amount of 'pay to click' each month. The problem s with all these scams is knowing how many people actually get taken in before they discover it's a scam because they never mention they have been caught out.Oh and by the way they normally don't use the MS built in remote access either, they normally use something like Cross Loop which gets round remote access being turned off, basically these type of programs get round using port 3389. Sometimes I think it's a shame these people don't use their skills to do something legal because they are far from thick, well most of them are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Had a call alittle while back from 'Microsoft' - claimed it was from Microsofts London office.I told this Indian gentleman that he was a scammer and that he should be locked up. This went on for a little while all the time me telling him that he was calling from India and he telling me he was calling from Microsoft London. Eventually he then put me on to his manager, this time an Indian lady and calling from London.She was very concerned that my computer was at risk and I was trying to reassure her that the only risk was an teempt to scam me. Eventually her concern turned to abuse and she told me that my Microsoft licence would be terminated the next day.As you can tell I am still waiting for the termination.Cold callers normally get the phone slammed down on them quickly but this was fun. Can't wait for the next call.They probably have the best success with elderly people who are not very computer savvy.Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 I haven't had any calls at all, am I being discriminated against ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Guess you are not worth scamming!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted June 17, 2012 Author Share Posted June 17, 2012 [quote user="PaulT"]They probably have the best success with elderly people who are not very computer savvy.[/quote]Exactly. As an update, using the info gained on here, I have disabled the Windows remote access, which these scammers had turned on, done a thorough scan of all changed/altered files/programmes and all seems to be well.The fact that they had used the Win remote access and not a programme by-passing this seems to indicate these are low-level scammers, but we will soon find out for sure.The card blocking might seem to have worked as my friend has just been contacted and informed that they were sorry to learn that she had blocked her card.Next I am going to contact the pay company - Pay Commerce - and complain about their involvement with a scamming set-up and see what happens.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbie Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 [quote user="AnOther"]I haven't had any calls at all, am I being discriminated against ?[/quote]I think that your reputation for technical competence has warned them off[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 My son, who is extremely tech savvy took one of these calls and strung them along for ages asking all sorts of 'innocent' questions, many of which were complete Bull. After a while, and when the net was about to close, he says 'All our machines run Linux, is that still a problem? ' .... CLICK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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