Computer Software > Security
Scam virus cold call - with a twist.
kitz:
I have just had the most surreal experience ever which I thought I'd share as I know some of you guys like stringing along the scammers.
Bear with me for the first part because its kind of relevant, the weird stuff happens later. Some of the convo is condensed.
Starts with the script "This is BT. We are calling because you have a virus on your computer" from someone with a thick Indian type accent.
So I play along with the usual run/eventvwr fully knowing that they are trying to alarm me.
Told him that I wasn't concerned at things like flashplayer crash or mozilla application hang.
Next came type btwifiscreenconnect and he told me I was a liar when I said all that came up was 'Server not found'. He is quite aggressive and tells me that I'm not doing things right.
Me:Perhaps that's because I don't use a BT router.
Him: No it’s because you have virus. That’s why you can’t connect.
Me: Quite sure I don't and I can connect to the internet just fine thanks.
Him: Type msbt.screenconnect.com into your chrome window
Me: This looks like a remote viewer that gives you access to my computer
Him: Don’t worry. Just type in code 840 and press enter.
Me: I'm not doing that as it would give you access to my PC.
Him: We need to fix your PC or BT will disconnect your internet.
Me: How will BT disconnect my internet?
Him: If you don't connect I either need to disconnect your internet immediately or pass you over to my manager.
At this point he decided to forgo giving me the choice and passes me straight over to his manager.
2nd person comes on the line, he speaks much better English with a slightly different type of accent.
2nd: Please connect to BT support so we can fix your PC.
Me: Nothing wrong with my PC
2nd: How do you know that?
Me: ..... At this point I start leaking hints that I'm technical and am quite aware of what event viewer is. That I run several types of malware protection and had studied viruses for my dissertation in BSc Computing Science. [Partial lie - dissertation was compression although I did deviate into researching malware].
2nd: If you connect then I can check for you. If not I will have to disconnect your internet.
Me: So you're going to disconnect my internet? Tell me how you will do this.
Me: Please tell me my username so that I know which account your are supposedly going to disconnect.
2nd: We don't disclose usernames. You don't need to know that, just like I don't need to know what you had for breakfast.
Me: I'd love to know how you will disconnect me as I'm not even with BT.
2nd: So why are you still on the phone?
Me: Because the longer you are tied up with me then that's less time you have of conning innocent people out of money who may fall for your scam.
Me: You are the lowest of the low. Scamming people out of their money. How can you live with yourself conning people all day?
2nd: I'm not from BT - I work for [missed the name began with S I think] and I'm in Syria.
2nd: How old are you - would you like more babies?
Me: What.. you're kidding.
2nd: Please ma'am how old are you and are you married?
Me: 58 and married [both are a lie btw!]
2nd: Where's your husband?
Me: At work
2nd: Please ma'am I'm desperate to get out of Syria. Your government are bombing us. Would you divorce your husband and marry me.
Me: I laughed.
2nd: See I can make you happy, that could be my job. You can divorce your husband and get £10,000. I have £6000 saved up. We can live happy for many years on 15 thousand. We can have babies.
Me: [laughs] At my age I think that's unlikely.
2nd: It can happen. Google it. Women in their 60's can have babies.
Me: I'm not going to divorce my husband
2nd: Its horrible here, children with missing limbs. We have no money for food.
2nd: I have six thousand saved up. Its terrible. I don't like having to scam people for £60 but I do that so I can eat and try get out of here. Help me find a woman to marry. I can make them laugh.
2nd: Please can I call you tomorrow? I'm a good person. I dont like having to scam people every day and want to get out. We could be happy.
Well that was an unusual twist. I'd expected it to terminate with the usual angry wasting their time speech and them slamming the phone down on me. :silly:
Attached screen cap of the remote viewer that could catch out quite a lot of people because they wont know what it is, nor the damage that could be caused if they put that number in.
skyeci:
My neighbour was unlucky to fall for the scam and gave them remote access to his laptop. Full wipe and rebuild to ensure it was clean after the event..
4candles:
Well, you did say there was a twist, but that was something else! ??? Thanks for sharing.
Do you think he'll call tomorrow? ;D
sevenlayermuddle:
Wow. Beats anything I've had by miles.
If he does call again tomorrow and it ceases ro be funny, it might be worth contacting the police. With the right authority, BT should actually be able to do quite a lot to identify individual malicious callers, far beyond just recording the caller id, which for these calls is always faked anyway.
kitz:
The first guy was quite aggressive in his approach and quite forceful, he wasn't listening to any of the clues I dropped that I was not with BT, just kept giving out instructions on what I needed to do and how bad it was that my PC was infected. He was getting irate because I refused to put the number he gave me into the website. He said something about damaging the internet which I didnt quite understand. Most of the call was with him telling me what I had to do.
The second guy had far better English and realised quite soon that I wasnt going to fall for it. I fully expected him to have a go at me for wasting their time so was not prepared for what came out next. On reflection it has quite a lot of similarities to the old African type scams. I think he just tried swapping one tactic for another.
No he wont be calling tomorrow, I think I made that quite clear. Even if he does, Col will be here all day anyhow so I easily pass the phone over to him if I'm concerned but I dont think it will come to anything else and I can always put the phone down.
I do have the number which called, but that gives nothing much away. Its 0008000588174
Probably have more luck reporting it to screenconnect.com. The scammers are obviously using that for their dirty deeds and paid for the subdomains btwifi and msbt.
I was puzzling over what the command btwifiscreenconnect.com was that he was asking me to put in the run box.
Just realised it should have been btwifi.screenconnect (note the dot). I was thinking at first it was a shortcut page to the homehub or something.
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