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Started By
Message
Mother In Law Scammed?
Posted on 7/19/16 at 8:37 pm
Posted on 7/19/16 at 8:37 pm
My mother in law came over to the house today asking if she could bring her laptop over and use our internet, because there was something wrong with hers and ATT couldn't be there until Thursday. As I hear her on the phone exasperated with some random customer service rep, she comes out and tells me her computer has a virus. The more I get to talking to her, she tells me the first time she found out about the "virus" was there was some flashing screen and a voice saying "ALERT ALERT"... it was "Microsoft Client Care Experts". She gave them $250 to fix her virus and get her computer running like new again. She said they took over her computer and ran "WebRoot" and everything was fine, etc. That was on June 28. Now her internet isn't working and the company needs another $200 to fix a "hardware" issue. I told her to stop giving people money, throw her computer away and get a new one, and never give anybody money again.
I guess I'm just wondering, could they have disabled her Internet, tv, phone, etc, via her computer? Now that she's paid $500 to fix this 4 year old laptop, is there anything she can do with it other than just tossing it?
Anybody have any experience with this?
I guess I'm just wondering, could they have disabled her Internet, tv, phone, etc, via her computer? Now that she's paid $500 to fix this 4 year old laptop, is there anything she can do with it other than just tossing it?
Anybody have any experience with this?
6
Posted on 7/19/16 at 9:09 pm to Giantkiller
They could have installed a keystroke logger, then used it to access att and disable her services
Posted on 7/19/16 at 9:29 pm to Giantkiller
No joke, I've had that shite pop up watching porn. Freaked me the hell out. I had to force close the browser to get rid of it. Scanned my computer with a few programs and nothing came up. Everything has been fine since.
So yeah, she got scammed
So yeah, she got scammed
Posted on 7/19/16 at 10:13 pm to Giantkiller
Something similar happened to my mom except she googled AT&T and clicked on one of the paid advertisements that always come up first. Luckily, she was at my house and I heard her speaking to them on speakerphone. She was about to pay them $250 and allow them to log onto her computer remotely. I caught it just in time and started asking questions and they only said they knew AT&T well but weren't actual employees. They got really pushy and ridiculous so I shut her computer and powered down my modem as fast as I could. No problems since but Google should really be ashamed of themselves for allowing obvious scammers to come up first as paid ads.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 8:06 am to Giantkiller
quote:I doubt her internet is not working if they can see into her computer. What it sounds like is they have replaced her DNS setting so she can't get online.
Now her internet isn't working and the company needs another $200 to fix a "hardware" issue.
quote:What she needs is a system restore back to factory settings, which might be a boot option on her laptop if you hit the right key on boot up.
I told her to stop giving people money, throw her computer away and get a new one, and never give anybody money again.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 8:25 am to Giantkiller
quote:
Mother In Law
quote:
Scammed
quote:
Tech Board
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 9:47 am to Rhio
quote:
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Yep. Old people + the internet. They're trust hasn't been completely destroyed yet like the generations after them, but I'm sure after this, it will be.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 9:51 am to Giantkiller
i talk to my mom once a week and i swear every time i talk to her one of her friends has been scammed in the EXACT same way.
its a damn shame. older people are more trusting and 'follow the rules' and thats how these 'microsoft security experts' exploit them if they happen to mistype a domain name in and stumble upon a 'virus alert'.
its fricking sad. this is the digital equivalent of the old 'sweepstakes' phone scammers who used to prey on old people by randomly calling them & convincing them they had won.
its a damn shame. older people are more trusting and 'follow the rules' and thats how these 'microsoft security experts' exploit them if they happen to mistype a domain name in and stumble upon a 'virus alert'.
its fricking sad. this is the digital equivalent of the old 'sweepstakes' phone scammers who used to prey on old people by randomly calling them & convincing them they had won.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 10:12 am to BruslyTiger
quote:
What it sounds like is they have replaced her DNS setting so she can't get online.
I've had DNS issues once, and not sure how it happened. If you can get her to type 216.58.194.36 into her browser, and google pops up, then it's a DNS setting either on her computer or her router.
Posted on 7/20/16 at 2:08 pm to Giantkiller
quote:
The more I get to talking to her, she tells me the first time she found out about the "virus" was there was some flashing screen and a voice saying "ALERT ALERT"... it was "Microsoft Client Care Experts". She gave them $250 to fix her virus and get her computer running like new again.
Your mother in law is really dumb
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