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Unusual Situation


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#1
dave423

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Hi. I just wanted to ask some questions about something. My Mom, age 89 got a call from someone with an accent (she thought it was Indian) telling her that her computer had viruses and got her to go to a TeamView website. Mom is not very computer savvy, in fact, she needs my help and step by step instructions to get logged on to her dial-up provider and get to Facebook. She doesn't use the computer for any financial transactions at all, in fact can not use it very well at all even to get to her Facebook page or her email. She spent over 30 minutes with the caller, and I think they got a little frustrated with her because they eventually just hung up. Her computer is turned off most of the time, not just inactive, but really powered down. Since she is on dial up, it takes forever for anything to download. Is there anything I can download to a flash drive to check her machine, or do I need to bring it home with me and plug it up to highspeed.

Thanks for your opinions,
Sincerely
Dave423
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#2
myrti

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Hi Dave,

as you correctly suspect those are scammers. They often claim to be from Microsoft, google or another large company. Their MO is to ask for a remote login and then show you how "damaged" the computer is by pointing out error-messages in the eventviewer. After which they will try to sell you a "one-time repair" for 199$ or a 2 year license for 300$ (numbers may vary obviously).

Do you know if your mum ever finished downloading teamviewer and granted access to the caller? If not, there's nothing to worry about. The website and program are legit and provide a free remote desktop service. If she did grant the caller access to her PC, you may want to check that everything is as it should be (and I'd be happy to help you with that). However they will not normally install malware on the PC, rather they delete system files or change passwords in order to show you how "damaged" the PC really is and to force you to pay the repair fee. They can only do that if the teamviewer session was successfully initiated.

For more info on those phone calls, have a look here:

http://www.microsoft...hone-scams.aspx

regards
myrti
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#3
dave423

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Hi Myrti
Thanks for getting back to me so fast. I'll probably get down to Mom's house sometime this weekend, and I'll take along some of my anti-virus and anti-malware programs and run them for her. I don't really think there is a problem, because she's on dial up, she rarely has the computer turned on, and she really doesn't know what she's doing. I think she finally frustrated the callers to the point where they just hung up. She forgets and calls the computer "my television" and tends to either single click, slow double click, or triple click the mouse. I bet the scammers were about to tear their hair out before they were through. I'll let you know what I find when I scan her television...uh, computer.

Thanks again,

Dave
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#4
myrti

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Hi,

As long as she never gave them access to her PC everything should be fine. I would recommend that you run a scan with malwarebytes to check for potential issues and, if you'd like me to take a look at the PC, also create an OTL log as described here: http://www.geekstogo...cleaning-guide/

regards
myrti
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#5
dave423

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Hi Myrti,

I will run malwarebites as soon as I get to go see Mom. She lives about 45 minutes to an hour from here, and I probably won't get to go down there until this Sunday. I'll let you know what I find. Thank you for your continuing help.

Dave423
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