Canada Kicks Ass
New Spin on old phone scam

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N_Fiddledog @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:46 pm

Every once in awhile I get a phone call I know is a scam but if I'm bored and have time to waste I play along a bit just for fun.

This girl called me twice today using surprisingly good English. Still an accent though.

It was the ol' 'problems with your computer, let us help' scam.

This one said she was from Microsoft.

So I play along until we get to the point where she asks me if I'm sitting at my computer.

Then I tell her "Oh wait..." and I start telling her about these evil scumbags who will get you to type your way into the guts of your machine and trick you into freezing the system then they demand money to unfreeze it.

I'm still expanding on what a band of useless parasites these slime are when she cuts me off and tells me that's not her, of course. She's from Microsoft and can prove it. She tells me she has my unique identifier given during the windows registration process. Only Microsoft and my machine know this number she tells me and she can tell me what it is.

Knocks me off my game. I hadn't heard that one before.

So I looked it up and if anybody else should ever be bored enough to talk to one of these scammers I can help you out so you don't get stumped at that one:

$1:
The really interesting feature, though, is the way that the scam seems to have moved on from giving you your address (which they get from a telephone directory)and a fake IP number to convince you that they can really see your system. According to Herold (and a quick google indicates that others are experiencing much the same thing) the scammer now asks you to check a CLSID.

A CLSID is a Class Identifier stored in the Windows Registry — at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID, but I don’t recommend that you go digging into the Registry unless you really know what you’re doing. Fortunately (from the point of view of interfering with Registry entries), the scammer doesn’t need you to edit the registry to find the CLSID he’s looking for. He simply has to persuade you to run the ASSOC command. It’s easy to do: you click on the Start button, Run, type in CMD to get to the command prompt (DOS prompt) and type ASSOC. That runs through a long list of file associations, telling you (for instance) that “.xltx=Excel.Template”.

Since it’s a long file it scrolls straight to the bottom, but if you’re really interested in seeing exactly what it contains, you can get it to go through page by page by typing in “assoc | more”: however, the scammer wants you to go straight to the bottom so that you’ll see this entry:

ZFSendToTarget=CLSID{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}

That’s the CLSID on both the PCs open on my desk at the moment. Amazingly, it’s also the one that the scammer quoted to Herold. And I bet that if you have a recent version of Windows and go through the same steps you’ll find that you have it too. In other words, the scammer can’t see your CLSID or anything else on your PC, including your Event Viewer logs. Unless, of course, you fall for the scam and give him remote access with AMMYY or LetMeIn.


https://www.welivesecurity.com/2011/07/ ... ot-unique/

You're welcome. :wink:

   



BartSimpson @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:09 pm

:mrgreen:

   



BartSimpson @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:19 pm

This just in from US-CERT:

$1:
FTC Issues Alert on Tech Support Scams
07/16/2018 04:24 PM EDT

Original release date: July 16, 2018

The Federal Trade Commission has released an alert on tech support scams. Scammers use pop-up messages, websites, emails, and phone calls to entice users to pay for fraudulent tech support services to repair problems that don’t exist. Users should not pay or give control of their devices to any stranger offering to fix problems.

NCCIC encourages users and administrators to refer to the FTC Alert and the NCCIC Tip on Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information. If you believe you are a victim of a tech support scam, file a complaint at www.FTC.gov/complaint.

   



GreenTiger @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:39 pm

I get some people from India attempting to get me to give them control of my PC and credit card.

I tell that some Indian scumbag assholes keep trying to get me to do that I and I tick them off to the nth degree. It worked they don’t bug me anymore.

   



Freakinoldguy @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:56 pm

They haven't phoned me since I asked the girl to wait a second while I got my pants off and then told her to start talking. She went ballistic and called her supervisor who happened to be a guy to come and talk to me. Well he started on how he was gonna have me arrested for sexual harassment and all other kinds of things. But he went completely ballistic when I cut him off and told him I was close but, could he talk a little softer.

He then proceeded to tell me he was calling the police to have me arrested which, given his profession pissed me off no end. So I told him that I was a retired angry old Navy asshole who had enough pension money to get on a flight to India and search every call center till I found him and when I did I'd personally unscrew his head and crap down the cavity.

The prick hung up but, I just don't understand why they haven't phoned back. [huh]

   



housewife @ Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:09 pm

ROTFL

They hung up on me I was trying to get them to call back cause hubby really wants to play.


oh an other note you should see the faces of the guys that come door to door trying to sign you up for a good hydro or gas rate. They ask for the bills and I smile and tell them I'm not allowed to look at the bills. Works every time :lol:

   



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