Apparently the fake Microsoft tech support scammers call South Africa too. Tech Central’s experience is close to mine, but since they actually let these jokers into one of their machines, they found out something about their game that I’ve never seen.
Apparently, once you get further into their sales pitch, they get into your machine, ask for payment, and if you hesitate to pay or refuse, they start deleting files out of revenge.
I’ve never actually let these guys get into a system I care about, though I have actually let one in to a system that really did have a couple of viruses on it. I wanted to see if they would find any real problems. They didn’t.
So, knowing that they maliciously delete would-be customers’ data if they show second thoughts, I think it’s a good idea to string these guys along for as long as we can when they call those of us who know better. Two of us doing that each night is enough to save one person from being victimized.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
This is not just annoying. It sounds like a federal (across state lines) crime which should be investigated as a case of malicious hacking (cracking).
I hope the fact that I’m using a pseudonym on Tor doesn’t makek me a cracker.
It’s absolutely a crime–even before they delete the first file they’ve broken several laws–but they’re outside of a friendly jurisdiction. I’ve actually had them tell me before that they don’t care about my Missouri laws in India.
It makes me wonder if tracing the call would even do any good. Maybe I’ll ask one of the scammers. :> It may be that the best thing for us to do, for now, is to troll them for a while and slow them down. I’ll certainly continue to write about my call center scam adventures. It probably won’t be long before I get another one.