FTC announces crackdown on telephone-wielding scareware scammers

I hope the Canadian Government does something like this in the very near future! We have The National Do Not Call List
to try to stop the telemarketers and I still get many unwanted calls but to stop these scammers is a whole another story all we can do is educate users everywhere to family, friends and online forums!  ;)
 
TH

Same thing happened to my boss a few months back.Received calls on different occasions from people claiming to be from aol and symantec as well.Needless to say his laptop and pc are nuked now.If he had let me know sooner what was going on,i could have helped him.I have him keeping an eye on his credit reports,etc,had him change all his online passwords,change his ip address,and several other things.Also recomended WSA to him as well as i have had to clean multiple infections from his Norton protected pcs in the past.He wants to finish out his Norton subscription first.Some people learn the hard way.No security or isp will ever call you and tell you you are infected.Unfortunately all too often they elderly get preyed upon in alot of these cases.This is the kind of stuff that gets my blood boiling very quickly.Guess the best thing we can all do is bring about awareness and educate those around us.If we reach 1 person,our effort is worthwhile.

Good! I just tell them I use Linux and they hang up.

Hey All,
 
Thanks for providing some great feedback!
 
T.H.
These scammers must be tough to monitor and stop. It seems like this stuff has been going on for a while and this is really the first time (that I've heard at least), that the FTC is stepping in. Interestingly, the defendants in this case completely neglected the Do Not Call list and went ahead to call those numbers illegally.
 
superssjdan,
Sorry to hear that your boss was scammed! It sounds like they took it a step further with him and really wreaked havoc on his machine and personal information. Did anything end up being resolved? Was he ever compensated in any way? I do agree, however, that it's mostly the elderly who get preyed upon by these people. And that's a shame since they often don't know much about computers and are easily tricked.
 
Seeker,
Did you get a chance to read the comments in the story (particularly the promoted reader comments)? I definitely had a good laugh reading about how tech-savvy folks deal with the situation, playing along like clueless computer novices and then really giving them a taste of their own medicine. On the other hand, however, I do sometimes feel bad for the people that do this shady work. I'm guessing that a lot of the time it's the only job they can find and they are under constant pressure to fill some ridiculous quota, which means scam as many people as possible.
 
In all, I hope that this is a start of good things to come and that the crackdown continues until we see more and more of these scammers exposed and companies shut down. With that, there's another related article this morning about eight more scareware defendants getting charged and owing a lot of $. Check it out!

I haven't read the comments yet, but I have read other stories of people playing along to the point where the caller became very angry and started abusing the recipient!

Sometimes, if I'm feeling especially grumpy, I'll tell the caller that I know it's a scam and to hang up or I'll call the police. This works too.

I just got another call 5 minutes ago unbelievable! "This is the Microsoft Help Center calling" :@
 
TH

Yegor,unfortunately he was not compensated.I tried several methods for tracing the calls,but to no avail.As most of them are funneled through the net,it makes it that much harder to trace.There was a charge that was reversed..think it was aroung a hunderd dollars or so,and his credit files seem clean at least for the moment.Made him several recommendations for things like lifelock and such.He had several rootkits as well as other infections on both his pc and laptop.As he had no backup imaging solution on either machine,i told him it was safest to wipe the machine and start fresh being we were dealing with some serious serious stuff.Had him mail away for the factory disks and i reinstalled everything.Most time consuming part was updating windows,java,adobe apps,chipset software etc.He hadn't had those up to date either.GUess you could say he was high risk..doesn't keep his programs patched and up to date,plus he downloads music and movies from file sharing sites.I think he's learned his lesson though.I at least hope so.Told him to stop being so cheap and spring for an external drive and a prog like Acronis True Image.Still waiting for his answer on that one.Also preached the need for a solution for his phones."Phones dont get infected".Well,i used to hear macs don't get infected,but every day they become a more attractive target.Spoke to hime about public wifi.I hit him with everything.He didnt realize his digital life was so exposed and there were so many diffferent ways to attack.Think i shook him pretty good.I definitely think there is more awareness now than ever before(except for the mac people.they are so blissfully ignorant).Now that alot of these things are making national news,it's bringing a greater awareness to the end user,and more importantly to the tech world as a whole.I look forward to the future when the home user is educated and the infrastructure is fortified with new technologies.Should be interesting to see how it all unfolds.It's great to see Webroot leading the way.Also,congrats on the PC MAG EDITORS CHOICE!! 

Interesting addition to this:
Sometimes a security company or ISP will call to let you know you're infected.  The difference is that they will encourage you to get assistance through a route you trust and by making a call directly to a verified contact number for that route.  Most commonly it's up to the ISP to contact the end user.

I definitely don't think most isps care really.I just finished going through 6 months of (the place were the evil go upon death.lol)with my isp over service related outages before we figured it all out.6  months of daily outages.It took things going to their corporate office before i stopped getting the cookie cutter index card responses.Things are fine now,but i do not think malware on end user pcs concerns ISPs very much.If it did,they would be giving away Webroot with my service and not Norton.As long as the isp is not under direct attack,they wil not care.I thank the lucky stars my parents do not own a pc at this point,as they wouldnt fall victim to this particular threat.I received a call this evening saying this was the last time i would be offered an opportunity to lower the rate on my credit card.It came from a cell phone..not a switch board.It really is a scary threat landscape in so very many ways.People are vulnerable like never before.All too often it's the less fortunate(using this term very generally) that suffer.I have begun to put together information packets on ways to protect yourself in the digital age.Upon completion,i plan on passing them around at church and including them in.gift boxes during the upcoming holdays.I would safely say most of the people i come accross at church each sunday are 60 or above.Surprisingly computer literate in seveal ways.Most of them know about twitter and facebook even know.Education and awareness are half the battle.If i can stop a few of them from going through what others have,it will have been worth the effort and resources.I thank Webroot for bringing awareness to the security issues plaguing users all over the world through the articles on their website and through awards they receive in the print and digital media.An educated user is a safe user:D

I wanted to post in this subject again as I have been getting calls everyday this week "Hi I'm from Microsoft and your computer is sending us errors messages" and it's getting me very Annoyed why do these people suck up my oxygen?  :@
 
TH

TH, You are not the only noticing an increase in these again.

@DavidP wrote:
TH, You are not the only noticing an increase in these again.

@They keep calling and I tell them off @#$%^& and they keep calling!
 
TH
 

 
 

TripleHelix wrote:They keep calling and I tell them off @#$%^& and they keep calling!
 

I haven't had a call from Microsoft or many of the telemarketers that use to call me for a long time. I bought an aerosol truck horn and when they call I tell them it's hard for me to hear them on the phone can they speak up, then I blow the horn into the phone and hang up. This stopped 80% of my telemarketer calls but scares the crap out of my dog. 😃