Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Internet users are being warned about cold callers who offer to fix viruses but then install software to steal personal information.

Campaign group Get Safe Online said a quarter of people it had questioned had received such calls, many suspected to have been from organised crime gangs.

Some gangs, employing up to 400 people, are known to set up their own call centres to target people en masse.

Internet users are also urged to be wary of pop-ups offering virus checks.

Earlier this year, search engine giant Google warned it had discovered massive amounts of malicious fake anti-virus software.

The UK warning on such software comes from Get Safe Online, which is backed by the government, police forces and major businesses with a stake in internet security.

It says it has charted a growth in two related scams designed to trick people into installing fake anti-virus software as a means of harvesting personal information such as credit card details.

Some of the scams involve pop-up windows claiming that the computer has been infected.

These "scareware" approaches encourage users to click through to a site hosting malicious or useless software that acts as a front for gathering personal information. Most of the time, the software appears almost identical to professional anti-virus products.

In other cases, gangs have set up call centres in eastern Europe or Asia and cold-call UK phone numbers attempting to find people to con.

In both cases, information gathered from the identity thefts can be used by gangs or sold on to other criminals through online market places.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11754487

Got a call from these guys this morning, told him to take down his trousers and insert telephone handset up his Brennan then hung up as he did not seem amused.

Heard of 2 computers hit by a popup last week that was saying their system infected, they could not get rid of it and shut down pc which then would not reboot even in safe mode except to go back to same popup, one guy thought he had it cleared then noticed a lot of activity in background on pc and at the end reformatted drive as could not get rid of it, was talking to another guy who makes his living from fixing PC's and he had same problem with a customers, had to remove hard drive and dig out the virus booted up on a Linux machine.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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People will insist on using Windowz
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by fermain »

I got a call yesterday, so I let the guy speak to waste his time, before telling him he was a thief, was talking tom kite and to feck off as I screamed at him down the phone!!! It certainly helped me to vent some pressure!!! :lol:
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by margin walker »

Some of these fake anti-virus pop-ups are quite sophisticated and actually look real as they make use the same interface as the Windows "Security Centre" where you configure the firewall and anti-virus.
One particularly nasty one is "Anti-Virus Pro 2010".
My advice is to download, install and update "Malwarebytes": http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Then start your computer in "safe mode" and run a scan with this - seems to do the job most times.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by AyeYerMa »

There's also one that looks very like the AVG warning screen. Both novel when they appear on a Linux box.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Got one today that looked like a DHL failed delivery due to weather, see receipt for further details on how to collect or rearrange delivery.
Receipt seems to be a nasty .exe buggy thingy :twisted:
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Received a phone call yesterday along the same lines. She stated she was calling from "microsoft" and that she was aware I had a virus that she could help with. Hung up sharpish but asking around work it seems this is on the increase again.

Or maybe they hadn't gone away you know!!
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Bring Humph On!! wrote:Received a phone call yesterday along the same lines. She stated she was calling from "microsoft" and that she was aware I had a virus that she could help with. Hung up sharpish but asking around work it seems this is on the increase again.

Or maybe they hadn't gone away you know!!
I'm getting one of those calls every couple of weeks, and I have heard of 2 people this week who got sucked in, one got their credit card screwed and the other has a computer which sits like an ornament in the corner now, their internet connection is totally screwed.

If not busy follow their instructions, well tell them you are following them but don't install anything and they get really mad when they can't get the remote session to work on your computer, or get the bogus credit card number to work either, at that stage tell them "thanks for wasting your time scammer" :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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Rooster wrote:
Bring Humph On!! wrote:Received a phone call yesterday along the same lines. She stated she was calling from "microsoft" and that she was aware I had a virus that she could help with. Hung up sharpish but asking around work it seems this is on the increase again.

Or maybe they hadn't gone away you know!!
I'm getting one of those calls every couple of weeks, and I have heard of 2 people this week who got sucked in, one got their credit card screwed and the other has a computer which sits like an ornament in the corner now, their internet connection is totally screwed.

If not busy follow their instructions, well tell them you are following them but don't install anything and they get really mad when they can't get the remote session to work on your computer, or get the bogus credit card number to work either, at that stage tell them "thanks for wasting your time scammer" :lol: :lol: :lol:
A friend of mine gets them regularly and he; talks to them in Irish, puts them on hold, sings a song, asks them all about their family, barks like a dog, puts on accents, mumbles and generally gets on their wick.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by WhiteKnightoftheWeld »

I try to make guys who cold call swear at me.
It's a sport.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

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WhiteKnightoftheWeld wrote:I try to make guys who cold call swear at me.
It's a sport.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by Cap'n Grumpy »

Bring Humph On!! wrote:Received a phone call yesterday along the same lines. She stated she was calling from "microsoft" and that she was aware I had a virus that she could help with. Hung up sharpish but asking around work it seems this is on the increase again.

Or maybe they hadn't gone away you know!!
I got one of those a couple of weeks ago - I'm not as sharp as you guys.As soon as she said "I'm calling from Microsoft, and I have reason to believe you have a virus problem on your computer" I replied "no you're not ..." but before I could say anything else she had hung up.

An elderly lady I know (in her mid 80s) received such a call and had the scammer on the phone for about half an hour before telling her she didn't even have a computer - she simply was glad of someone to talk to. She still took some persuading later that the caller bad been a scammer as she was convinced she was for real and actually felt guilty about not having a computer. At that point she became frightened when she realised that if the caller had claimed to be from a bank, she would have handed over her bank details quite readily.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by BaggyTrousers »

I stand at the Ulster games with a guy who actually works for Microsoft and he had one of these calls. Knowing all the jargon he decided to lead them on for 45 minutes showing interest and and took them down all sorts of blind alleys whilst maintaining their interest.

Eventually after getting them to perjure themselves he revealed his ID & the phone went down quicker than you could say holy feck.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by DavyG »

Re 0161087205541

I had a quick dig around, listed to:

LSUK
Mr Taylor,
Unit 18/Severnside Trading Estate, Textilose Road,
Manchester, Lancashire, M17 1WA

Fax - 0161-872 3429

Web site key words - fuel injection services, Automotive, fuel injectors, fuel injection system

I would be a wee bit suspicious.


:salut: :red:
Last edited by DavyG on Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Warning over anti-virus cold calls to UK internet users

Post by DavyG »

In fact I would be very suspicious...


"The following is a statement from Euro Car Parts on putting LSUK into administration:

After a considerable amount of non-stop work and investment into LSUK over the past 5 days, the Euro Car Parts directors realised that they had no option but to place LSUK into administration with effect from Monday 6th October 2008."

Further search reveals:
Domain name:
lsuk.co.uk
Registrant:
Pinco 1555 Limited
Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 4125064)
Registrant's address:
99 Attercliffe Road
Attercliffe
Sheffield
S4 7WW
Sheffield
South Yorkshire
S4 7WW
GB
Registered on: 01-Apr-1998
Renewal date: 01-Apr-2010
Last updated: 07-Mar-2008
Registrant:
Dale Gillespie
Registrant type:
UK Individual
Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 02-Jul-2010
Renewal date: 02-Jul-2012
Last updated: 03-Aug-2010


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