Phone scam - your Windows compluter is infected - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

Peasie · Expert

Phone scam - your Windows compluter is infected

gbm · Guru

No but presume it involves either unreserved access to your machine or your bank details!

Thanks for making us aware of another scam. Lots of scary emails circulate telling us about these 'true stories', apparently quite a lot are bogus and just used to collect email addresses, but you've confirmed that these actually happen.

The classic HMRC rebate ones continue, which are now moving to phone calls, which is obviously concerning. I've mentioned these in my newsletters before, and had a client before Christmas ring up, she'd received a rebate email for something daft (but plausible) like £92.33 and had got as far as entering her bank details, then thought it might be a good idea just to run it past her accountant!

The message continues to be; be vigilant.

Peasie · Expert

What got me is they were specifically asking for me by name. They mispronounced it Stoo-art (Stuart) because of their accent.
It's taken me nearly 46 years to realise how weird my name looks written down.

BudgetB · Guru

They get enough info from you to remotely log into your machine, and then recover as much information as they can. Undetected of course they could continue to log in as often as they like, install keystroke registering software etc. Scary stuff. This actually happened to my ex's mum.

The less sinister version would be to get you to purchase a security update, so they get your credit card details etc.

Re the HMRC emails, I've had a client report that he had one last week, luckily phoned before entering any details, so I've emailed all clients with a warning to send them to me if they are unsure.

gbm · Guru

Wow Peasie, I have no idea why, but I always thought of you as a woman. smile

Names are funny things, my father thought of mine whilst he was shaving.

Anyway sorry for taking this off thread, sure someone will pull it back.

Peasie · Expert

gbm wrote:

Wow Peasie, I have no idea why, but I always thought of you as a woman.

I am.

Parents can be cruel giving names to their kids.

Nah - only joking.

Though strangely, my mum has "Stuart" as a middle name. She has another "middle" name that is more like a surname. To make things even more confusing she has a first name that NOBODY calls her by but instead uses another name completely. To further add to the mystery my sister's name is the gaelic version of my mum's name (the one she doesn't use).

EDIT : maybe my avatar confused you.

-- Edited by Peasie on Monday 7th of February 2011 01:53:44 PM

ADAS · Guru

I got a call from someone claiming to be from my bank today. Perhaps it was a lucky guess but they had both the correct bank and last two digits of my account.

BudgetB · Guru

That's a bit scary! I take it they weren't from the bank...

BC Boy · Veteran Member

I have been "attacked" via all of these routes. Luckily I trust no one who contacts me and offers me money or asks me if i was aware I had a problem, One further potential scam may be the following, dont know for sure but it's a bit odd. I received a call from someone purporting to be from Sage and telling me that I was operating too many payroll companies for my licence. I enquired how they knew and they told me that when you file a PYE on line there is a record sent to Sage, this maybe true but when I explained that I deal with short term theatre shows among my clients and therefore may file more than my licenced year ends I never operate more than allowed at any one time. They were not accepting my answers and were probing. I refused to divilge any further information and told them that if they wanted to know more they should write to me as they must have all of my details on file and demonstrate the validity of the data they had, that was over five months ago - no letter has arrived. I believe that the scam would be to try to get me to give up credit card details for more licences. May of course be my over imaginative mind but.............. Just saying, as othere do, be careful out there!

Peasie · Expert

I think the phone call from Sage probably wasn't a scam.

Someone phoning up randomly knows there is a high chance if someone owns a computer that it will running on some Windows operating system. They may even have bought a mailing list off some company I have bought computer type material from.

Sage Payroll on the other hand is not so popular that a random call may find a target.

ADAS · Guru

BudgetB wrote:

That's a bit scary! I take it they weren't from the bank...

Not at all Jenny. I'm hoping it was just a lucky guess but people must be able to find a lot of informations pretty easily. Most of us post our business names, web-site links etc.

@BC Boy - not an expert but did the caller know your sage account number?

BC Boy · Veteran Member

To be honest dont remember, it may have been that that made me suspicious.

BC Boy · Veteran Member

You may well be right Peasie it is just all a bit strange especially as no further follow up. I have never known Sage do anything for nothing. Not too hard to find who has Sage, a simple internet search, look at websites, adverts, forums!!

Zoe · Senior Member

I've had the computer one a few times. The last time they called I told them I didn't have a computer and they have since stopped so hopefully they've taken my name off their list.

I had another one the other day supposedly doing a survey on behalf of the Government to distribute subsided burglar alarms. They were asking all sorts of questions about the security levels on the house etc. The fact they had my maiden name instead of my married name set alarm bells ringing. I'm not sure if they wanted my bank details or if they wanted to know which houses had which level of protection?

ADAS · Guru

Zoe wrote:

They were asking all sorts of questions about the security levels on the house etc. The fact they had my maiden name instead of my married name set alarm bells ringing. I'm not sure if they wanted my bank details or if they wanted to know which houses had which level of protection?

Not to take away from a serious point Zoe but that made me chuckle aww

Zoe · Senior Member

Oh dear! Bad choice of words by me! smile

BudgetB · Guru

Above them all though, the Nigerians are my absolute favourite. On my work email I get at least 2 a day, so they clearly all love me. They get caught up in my Spam folder, so sometimes if I'm in need of a laugh I'll sit and have a read of a few. By my estimates so far I must be worth at least £56, 435, 678.02p!!!

Wishing you of my best intentions at all time and may God bless you.....haha biggrin

Amanda · Expert

Hi,

I had someone from the bank (a foreigner named Dave) who saw I have some money in a savings account, we had just remortgage to build an extension and it was the extra money sat in a savings account, anyway he told me I was not getting enough interest (who is) and he would be happy to transfer it across to another savings account and open it on the phone for me etc. Anyway I said no as was just about to start spending some of it, asked him a few questions regarding the bank and different branches that I had banked at in the last 5 years ( I moved and use another one now), anyway I was suspicious and told him no. He then had the nerve to ring back again and 2 days later, the first time he did give me his mobile, although I never tried it. Anyway I never let him move the money as didn't trust him.

Its so easily done via the phone or email, thank god I had my wits about me that day.

barum · Newbie

I had this very call at the weekend, when he said my computer was infected I started laughing, he hung up so obviously lacks a sense of humor.

Wella · Expert

Just an update on the infected PC phone calls

A friend had this very phone call last week but being unaware, and concerned, he proceeded with the conversation.

It starts with (in his case) a lady telling him that as he is using Vista (she knew this?) his PC will be infected and directed him to an error logging file within his PC. Sure enough loads of errors logged, which obviously concerned him even more.

Once the rapport had been established he was passed to a "senior advisor", who gave him loads more spiel then tried to get him to upgrade to Windows 7, and they would supply it.

My friend managed to find out that the callers were in India but the phone number they were using had a US international code.

Basically, it seems to be a sophisticated cold call, and I suspect that they got his telephone details from Microsoft when he first registered his software about three years ago.

Luckily the penny dropped at this point, and he told the advisor in no uncertain terms where to place the telephone.

Bill

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

I think that all of us knew that Vista was a virus anyway!

It was never adopted by business and even Dell only dropped supplying XP as a no cost alternative when Windows 7 was released.

Anyway, apparently I'm a relative of someone in China who has died and they're trying to contact me about my inheretence.... Who the heck falls for these things!