My troll call with a Fake Tech Support scammer

[pctutor]

Not too long ago, I was able to get one of these Fake Tech Support scammers on the phone. I wanted to see what he would say. I recorded the phone call and my screen so I could post it online for everyone to see.

I will be the first to admit, the tactics and tricks he used to try to scam me out of $549 are pretty clever. Of course, you guys as techs will see right through them but you can certainly understand why the average computer user would be fooled.

I also planned in advance how I wanted to end the call with a surprise. I think you'll like it.

Fake Tech Support call

 

[TechLady]

This is awesome. Mind if I post to my Facebook page, etc.?

 

[pctutor]

This is awesome. Mind if I post to my Facebook page, etc.?

Please do - the purpose behind it is to make more people aware of these scammers. Thanks!

 

[angry_geek]

This was great! It's a shame you couldn't get their location or something. Poor grandma, though.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Nice one Scott.

Would you mind if I posted this on my blog, and bus fb page?. I would naturally link you to both of them.

I have blogged about this in the past, but having the full 'chat' I think would be beneficial to my clients.

 

[pctutor]

You guys have my full permission to post this on your websites or social media pages. Thanks for spreading the word.

I have heard about these guys from my customers, but I thought it would be really good to hear the words straight from the scammer's mouth, along with an "average guy" explanation as to why what he is saying is entirely untrue.

 

[AndyM]

Hi Scott,

great one! Poor Grandma though.

just one point, the guy did run a scan on your pc... well sort of...

If you look at the CMD prompt box, you'll see that he is using the tree command, and not pasting the file in.

I've had a couple of customers that have had calls like this in the past couple of weeks, but I do make a point of letting customers know that Microsoft NEVER EVER call people to let them know that they have computer infections!

Really appreciated.

Andy

 

[pctutor]

he is using the tree command, and not pasting the file in.

Andy, could you elaborate on that? He did do a right-click and Paste, and it appeared to me that he just pasted a huge file that would take a long time to copy, which is why it appeared to scroll up the screen. What exactly do you think he pasted? Was it an instructional command of some type?

 

[Kitten Kong]

Hi Scott

If you go to cmd, and type in the following

tree c:\ /f /a

it will list your entire hard drive, including folders, and files within the folders.

Something I remember from the good old ms dos 6.1 days

 

[pctutor]

tree c:\ /f /a

Did not know that. Probably knew it at one time when I used DOS a lot more than I do now. That's most likely what that guy pasted in. Thanks.

 

[LedHed]

Scott,
Fantastic work, I don't know how you managed to keep from laughing. I am interested in finding out what programs you used to record the call and to record the screen.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[pctutor]

Scott,
Fantastic work, I don't know how you managed to keep from laughing. I am interested in finding out what programs you used to record the call and to record the screen.

Thanks,
Andy

For the audio, I used Skype (I have outgoing and incoming Skype) and a little Skype recording program called Evaer. For the screen capture, I used a program I found called BB Flashback. It was the "least obvious" one that I came across in the searching I did. Still not completely hidden, but it worked well enough for this purpose anyway.

 

[LedHed]

Thank you for the reply. I will check those out.

Again, great work.

 

[AndyM]

Hi Scott,

Nige's command structure is the one to use. If you copy and paster the following, you'll get the screen that he presented with.

tree c:\ /f /a
color c
FAILURE!!!! YOUR INTERNET SECURITY IS POSESSED! CALL THE PENTAGON! MAKE A COFFEE, THEN TRANSFER $459 TO OUR ACCOUNT!

Andy

 

[LifelineIT]

Shared on my fb as well. Nice work.

 

[callthatgirl]

Love it and I too will share on my networks. Great stuff, I love your fake, "oh my goshes" and "oh no's"

muahahahahahahah!

 

[ccritchie]

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but I had one of my customers call me up this afternoon because, at that moment, someone was connected remotely to his laptop computer (that I sold him) after calling him and telling him that his computer was having problems. After briefly explaining to him how the scam worked, he remarked that the guy wanted (only) $75, but that amount was just the first payment I advised him to immediately shut the computer down. I will likely need to do a malware check (if not removal) on this system in the near future.

It's interesting to note that the customer even told me "Yeah, it's been running great ever since I bought it from you." (OK, then why did you give someone access to your computer when they called & said that it was having problems???)

Some of my observations:

• Although anyone can theoretically be a victim of one of these scams, the bad guys seem to prey on older folks who may not be as tech-savvy as the younger set.
• The scammers also seem to primarily call land lines, as it's easier to get a hold of a database of landline phone numbers. Again, the majority of my older customers still have a land line. I had one customer who received such a call and was tipped off to the scam primarily because "hardly anyone ever calls my landline anymore."
  
  Of course, we can warn our customers (I re-posted the OP's blog on my own site), but that still won't stop everyone from getting scammed. One thing that did help, in this case, was the level of trust that I have with this older gentleman. Before he paid up (lost money, got his credit card & identity stolen), he thought to call me because he trusts me. If we take care of our customers, they will be less susceptible to those folks who seek to do them harm.

 

[peachypc]

Is your cat alright?

 

[ccritchie]

Probably OK, just covered in Grandma.

 

[peachypc]

Well. I can't help but admire you patience.

I have taken 3 of these calls.

I'll play with them about 10 minutes TOPS, and then, after acting like a complete moron, and can't get hooked up with them I'll say something like "Don't you have to be on-line to do this?" or maybe "Does this work on a Mac?" 'cause I can't follow any of what you are saying.
...and let them hang up on me.