Fake phone call from Microsoft

The following is an email that I received and responded to. This is the second time in a month that I have had to address this phone scam. As you will read, someone posing as a Microsoft rep. calls the house and says you are loaded with viruses and they need access to your pc to clean it up. You are given a web address to go to and they will “take care of the rest.” As far as I can tell, this is a scam to get control of your pc and steal personal info. Bill Gates & Microsoft have much more important stuff to do then let you know you have a virus. Be on the look out for this and don’t become a victim.



“IT'S A SCAM!!! A friend of mine's daughter got the same phone call in South
Carolina about a moth ago.
As far as I can figure out, they want you to give them access to your pc.
Probably to steal any personal info you have stored on it.
Microsoft has no way, that I know of, to monitor your system. Even if they
did, I really don't think they are going to call you about a virus.
You did the right thing by not giving him any info.
Defender is most likely off because of Comodo. It should give you the
option to turn it back on.
FYI: I think you have Vista & not Windows 7 or 8.
Hope this helps.

Keith”

-----Original Message-----
To:
Kesartech@live.com
Subject: weird phone call.

“New question I just got a phone call from someone (India sounding)
saying I have a virus on the Windows program . He wanted me to turn on
my computer and he would lead me through fixing it. I checked the *69
and could not get the number that called me. I did tell him I had no way
to know who I was talking to or to prove he was legal nor did I get a
letter form Microsoft. I checked and Microsoft defender is off is this
because I have comodo? He had my name and knew I had windows, I do not
remember if he knew I had 7 or 8.”

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Barnes & Noble pulls PIN pads after fraud ring hits stores

Have you used a credit or debt card at Barnes Noble lately? If so, read this article.

http://www.scmagazine.com/barnes-noble-pulls-pin-pads-after-fraud-ring-hits-stores/article/265235/

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Beware of malicious Blackhat SEO poisoning.

The following article talks about how sometimes when we search with Bing, Google, Ask, etc.. we can get redirected to a bad website full of scareware. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scareware ). Most of these come when you search "hot topics." So be careful what you search for and look for redirects.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/10/05/bing-image-blackhat-seo-poisoning/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=status+message&utm_campaign=naked+security

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The All-In-One PC.

I have been ask about the All-in-one pc a lot lately. Attached, you will find an article about them. Here are my thoughts on them.  They are neat, space saving little machines and I don’t have enough experience with them to give an honest answer. Based on the research I’ve done on them, I can give my opinion. When dealing with them, an old saying comes to mind., “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” If one item goes bad , it all goes bad. Just like the 4-in-one copier/fax/scanner/printer. If the copier goes out, maybe the scanner will still work, maybe not. Same thing goes here. If the screen gets damaged, you just can’t run to Best Buy and buy a new monitor. Heaven forbid an internal devices goes bad like the hard drive or video card. You need to be a surgeon / auto body man to change it out. First you have to use a dent puller (suction cups) to carefully remove the glass that covers the screen. The glass is held on by about a dozen magnets. Too much pressure one way or the other and CRACK you just broke the glass. If you successfully remove the glass, now you have another dozen T-5 torque screws to remove. Then open the case about an inch and with a pair of long tweezers, unplug a wire (which you must use the same tweezers to plug back in when reassembling it.) Now unscrew the LCD screen and unplug two more wires to tilt the screen forward to get to the “guts’ of the pc. A few more steps and you are ready to reassemble it. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Next comes cost, which can range anywhere from $900 up to $1300. I think these computers serve a purpose for a certain group of people, like college kids and people with limited space. The choice is yours. Just make sure you do your homework before purchasing one. Hope this helps.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/262078/hp_tries_to_trump_imac_with_spectreone.html

 

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3 New Stories.

Here are three new stories to check out:

1.) Is about the flaws in Java and how to disable Java to avoid any problems.
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/08/30/how-turn-off-java-browser/


2.)  This one also talks about the Java zero-day vulnerabilities, but also about a "Blackhole exploit kit.
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/08/30/java-flaws-already-included-in-blackhole-exploit-kit-oracle-was-informed-of-vulnerabilities-in-april/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=status+message&utm_campaign=naked+security


3.) Malware warning: There’s a bot going around Facebook Chat, Skype, other IM services.
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/08/30/malware-warning-theres-bot-going-around-facebook-chat-skype-messenger-im-services/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheNextWeb+(The+Next+Web+All+Stories)

Hope these are helpful.

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Seem that there is yet another attack on your Android phone. It is a Trojan Horse virus that starts out as a GIF wallpaper app and if you made the mistake of agreeing to install the app, the Trojan would have full access to the personal details you store on the device, as well as the ability to send SMS messages to a premium rate number.Check out the following article for more details.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/08/21/nude-wallpaper-apps-infect-thousands-of-android-devices-with-malware/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=status+message&utm_campaign=naked+security

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It seems that one of Yahoo's affiliates got hacked and 450,000 passwords & user names were stolen.
Read the following link to see how this affects you.


http://cl.publicaster.com/ViewInBrowser.aspx?pubids=7889%7c7900%7c909706%7c991374&digest=T74y0QIt4Zu6zbEyGIY0zg&sysid=1

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