Phishing attacks

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Just wanted to throw this out there as a general thing. As we all know there are many aholes out there wanting access to our pcs and we all know the ones that call up purporting to be from Microsoft. Yesterday just after I left work my son rang me up telling me that a guy from MS rang up, told him he had a problem with the pc and we put in an error report about 3 weeks ago (lets face it, who remembers if you really did). Then he needed remote control to the pc to fix it and run a scan or something (which my son gave him, not really knowing any better) and then started to offer a security package for 1, 2 or 3 years and needed a credit card number. At this point my son told him that I would be home soon and he should call then.

My son then called me straight away and told me what was going on. I told him to pull the plug ASAP, just rip out the electricity cords. Later on, when I had explained to him what the problem was he started to apologise profusely. I told him to stop and that it wasn't his fault, it was mine. Yep, you read it right, my fault. My fault for not keeping up to date with his ongoing IT education.

I just wanted to put this out there as a reminder that we, as IT pros, wouldn't fall for this but don't forget that our kids aren't IT pros. Don't forget to keep them up to date as well.

 

I keep trying to patch them but the downloads keep getting rejected.

 

Oh so true, security is hugely based on education and awareness.

 

Just a quick update. The attacker got my son to download a file called AA_v3.exe. This is actually a legitimate remote access tool from Ammyy LLC, much like Teamviewer or Remotely anywhere. the usual attack from these guys using this tool is to install other malware on the pc to scam your credit card details. Check out the video posted by TheProf in another post.

The good news: it seems that nothing has been compromised on this computer. I've found the file, there seems to be no other sotware been installed (maybe no time to do anything thanks to my son calling me). In any case, I think I will restore the pc from an earlier backup image using Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery.

The downside is that my main pc seems to be screwed and won't boot because of the crash caused by pulling the plug.

 

Scammers always seem to pick on the vulnerable.

 

This is kind of stuff is hard to avoid for someone who does not understand these kind of scams. I am glad you got everything under control Nugget. Its definitely a learning experience and I am sure next this will be avoided if it happens again.