So you've just cleaned and optimized your storage drives, cleared out a ton of bloatware, and if you had the issue, got rid of a virus wreaking havoc on your system, and now your computer is as snappy as it was on day one.
You've changed your software installation habits, and you're feeling pretty good. Until you get a call from a Microsoft Support Technician saying your computer has a ton of infected files and folders.
You initially are skeptical, but he takes you through the process, via remote desktop, of scanning your registries, something you didn't know how to do, and he found 142 infected files and folders.
These scams in a nutshell.
You are concerned, because you want your computer to be malware free, and running at peak performance. Naturally you want to continue through the process of removing these infected files and folders.
If you made it this far, the news I have isn't good. You've been duped, lied to, and scammed.
ANATOMY OF THE SCAM:
While I just laid out the basic tactic of how this scam works, that leaves the questions of how people can fall for this, and what exactly they're installing.
This scam works via scare tactics, and a bit of demonstration on their end that you can see for yourself, "infected" files and folders.
While they claim they are removing these infected files and folders, what they are doing is in fact giving themselves admin access to your computer (with all of your personal information on it), and locking you out of it, all to extort money from you.
In other words, they're frauds and criminals. Microsoft doesn't just call their customers out of the blue saying they have infected files and folders, because Microsoft doesn't have access to that personal, and highly confidential information. The information Microsoft does have is your browsing habits, and that's it.
Yes, even on Windows 10, which is why I urge people installing Windows 10 to read through the windows carefully when installing any piece of software, including one of the most popular and widely used pieces of software, Windows.
HOW TO PREVENT THIS FROM OCCURRING:
First and foremost, preventing this issue is a little bit of an art these days, as scammers get a hold of your email and phone number rather easily.
So the first thing I'm going to suggest is when you receive a call from a number you don't recognize, DO NOT ANSWER IT!!!
This mallard knows what's up!
If it's really something important, they will leave a message. Official and legitimate organizations don't outright call their customers out of the blue to report a problem.
The second thing I'm going to suggest is something that can both boost your internet speeds, and allow you to browse the web privately, and that's using a VPN service.
VPN's might come to be a necessity these days, because of the amount of scammers out there gaining access to your email and phone number through normal browsing habits.
Sure, VPN's might cost a little extra on top of your normal internet bill, but the prices for stellar VPN's like Nord VPN and others is very affordable and cheap, and you get the massive benefit of completely private web browsing.
If someone calls you out of the blue and says there's a problem with your computer, immediately doubt their credibility, and hang up. That's the best piece of advice I can offer here.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU FALL VICTIM TO THE SCAM:
If you fell victim to their scam, immediately call your bank and cancel all of your credit and debit cards, and consider closing those accounts out and opening a brand new one.
Reason being, is that these scammers get a hold of your bank information in one way or the other fraudulently. Which is a nice segue into the next piece of advice.
After cancelling your credit and debit cards, report the scam, and let everyone you know about the scam. This makes it hard for these scammers to continue their little practice of lying to people and getting tons of money each call. Yes, on average these scammers make $470 per scam. While profitable, this practice is ethically reprehensible and disgusting.
If you're tech savvy, you can have a little fun and remove that program. Annoyingly, it's installed deep into the OS like a virus, so deep that Malwarebytes and other legitimate and great anti-virus programs won't be able to detect it.
Thus, in this situation, backing up your personal data (which you should do regularly and religiously), and wiping your storage drives clean. After you've backed up important data, and after you wiped your storage drives clean, it's an idea to clear the CMos on your motherboard to return your motherboard to its pristine, out of the box condition.
Most motherboard manufacturers, thankfully, make this a button on the rear I/O
You can also clear the Cmos by removing the motherboard coin battery and reinserting it.
Easy as pie!
Finally, you want to reinstall a clean version of Windows. This is why I always have a Windows installation flash drive on hand. If you want a guide on how to create one, let me know!
All of this sounds annoying and tedious, and it is, but it will return your PC to a clean and pristine condition. At this point, reinstalling hardware drivers is small potatoes compared to what you just went through.
WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN DEALING WITH THESE SCAMMERS:
First and foremost thing to remember, these are criminals. And criminals can become violent.
Don't believe me? Well, there have been people trolling these scammers, and them getting threatened with physical and sexual violence.
A rather infamous example of this can be found in this article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...ecorded-threatening-to-kill-b-c-man-1.2980453
To quote the scammer directly, just to point out how evil and twisted these wastes of skin are, all because the gentlemen said to the scammer that you're lying and stealing from people, calling him an awful human being. Frankly, the guy was right to call the scammer out:
After that gem, since the scammer had the gentlemen's name and address, the scammer threatened to send people to his house to kill him.
This is why I advise to NEVER ANSWER A CALL FROM A NUMBER YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE!!! PERIOD!!! END OF STORY!!!
They're criminals, and it's best to treat them as such and not grace them with your exalted presence, dear reader.
CONCLUSION:
In short, take preventative measures and start by never answering phone calls from numbers you don't recognize, never let anyone you don't trust have access to your computer, either remotely or personally, always be skeptical of calls out of the blue telling you that you have a problem with your computer. Report these calls as you get them, especially if you cleared your information from third party registries. In my case, that involved emailing the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and saying I want to be put on the Do Not Call List.
My reaction when I get a scam telemarketer
when I'm on the Do Not Call List.
If you have the software the scammer installed on your computer, it's tedious, but rather easy to remove if you're tech savvy. Problem is, not everyone is tech savvy, so take it to a computer repair technician, and they'll fix the problem.
Or, in one hilarious case, these scammers called an IT professional that uses Linux as his OS. Hilarity ensued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyor7MtS3TU
In short, these scammers are wastes of human skin, lying and scamming consumers out of their money.
You've changed your software installation habits, and you're feeling pretty good. Until you get a call from a Microsoft Support Technician saying your computer has a ton of infected files and folders.
You initially are skeptical, but he takes you through the process, via remote desktop, of scanning your registries, something you didn't know how to do, and he found 142 infected files and folders.
These scams in a nutshell.
You are concerned, because you want your computer to be malware free, and running at peak performance. Naturally you want to continue through the process of removing these infected files and folders.
If you made it this far, the news I have isn't good. You've been duped, lied to, and scammed.
ANATOMY OF THE SCAM:
While I just laid out the basic tactic of how this scam works, that leaves the questions of how people can fall for this, and what exactly they're installing.
This scam works via scare tactics, and a bit of demonstration on their end that you can see for yourself, "infected" files and folders.
While they claim they are removing these infected files and folders, what they are doing is in fact giving themselves admin access to your computer (with all of your personal information on it), and locking you out of it, all to extort money from you.
In other words, they're frauds and criminals. Microsoft doesn't just call their customers out of the blue saying they have infected files and folders, because Microsoft doesn't have access to that personal, and highly confidential information. The information Microsoft does have is your browsing habits, and that's it.
Yes, even on Windows 10, which is why I urge people installing Windows 10 to read through the windows carefully when installing any piece of software, including one of the most popular and widely used pieces of software, Windows.
HOW TO PREVENT THIS FROM OCCURRING:
First and foremost, preventing this issue is a little bit of an art these days, as scammers get a hold of your email and phone number rather easily.
So the first thing I'm going to suggest is when you receive a call from a number you don't recognize, DO NOT ANSWER IT!!!
This mallard knows what's up!
If it's really something important, they will leave a message. Official and legitimate organizations don't outright call their customers out of the blue to report a problem.
The second thing I'm going to suggest is something that can both boost your internet speeds, and allow you to browse the web privately, and that's using a VPN service.
VPN's might come to be a necessity these days, because of the amount of scammers out there gaining access to your email and phone number through normal browsing habits.
Sure, VPN's might cost a little extra on top of your normal internet bill, but the prices for stellar VPN's like Nord VPN and others is very affordable and cheap, and you get the massive benefit of completely private web browsing.
If someone calls you out of the blue and says there's a problem with your computer, immediately doubt their credibility, and hang up. That's the best piece of advice I can offer here.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU FALL VICTIM TO THE SCAM:
If you fell victim to their scam, immediately call your bank and cancel all of your credit and debit cards, and consider closing those accounts out and opening a brand new one.
Reason being, is that these scammers get a hold of your bank information in one way or the other fraudulently. Which is a nice segue into the next piece of advice.
After cancelling your credit and debit cards, report the scam, and let everyone you know about the scam. This makes it hard for these scammers to continue their little practice of lying to people and getting tons of money each call. Yes, on average these scammers make $470 per scam. While profitable, this practice is ethically reprehensible and disgusting.
If you're tech savvy, you can have a little fun and remove that program. Annoyingly, it's installed deep into the OS like a virus, so deep that Malwarebytes and other legitimate and great anti-virus programs won't be able to detect it.
Thus, in this situation, backing up your personal data (which you should do regularly and religiously), and wiping your storage drives clean. After you've backed up important data, and after you wiped your storage drives clean, it's an idea to clear the CMos on your motherboard to return your motherboard to its pristine, out of the box condition.
Most motherboard manufacturers, thankfully, make this a button on the rear I/O
You can also clear the Cmos by removing the motherboard coin battery and reinserting it.
Easy as pie!
Finally, you want to reinstall a clean version of Windows. This is why I always have a Windows installation flash drive on hand. If you want a guide on how to create one, let me know!
All of this sounds annoying and tedious, and it is, but it will return your PC to a clean and pristine condition. At this point, reinstalling hardware drivers is small potatoes compared to what you just went through.
WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN DEALING WITH THESE SCAMMERS:
First and foremost thing to remember, these are criminals. And criminals can become violent.
Don't believe me? Well, there have been people trolling these scammers, and them getting threatened with physical and sexual violence.
A rather infamous example of this can be found in this article:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...ecorded-threatening-to-kill-b-c-man-1.2980453
To quote the scammer directly, just to point out how evil and twisted these wastes of skin are, all because the gentlemen said to the scammer that you're lying and stealing from people, calling him an awful human being. Frankly, the guy was right to call the scammer out:
After that gem, since the scammer had the gentlemen's name and address, the scammer threatened to send people to his house to kill him.
This is why I advise to NEVER ANSWER A CALL FROM A NUMBER YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE!!! PERIOD!!! END OF STORY!!!
They're criminals, and it's best to treat them as such and not grace them with your exalted presence, dear reader.
CONCLUSION:
In short, take preventative measures and start by never answering phone calls from numbers you don't recognize, never let anyone you don't trust have access to your computer, either remotely or personally, always be skeptical of calls out of the blue telling you that you have a problem with your computer. Report these calls as you get them, especially if you cleared your information from third party registries. In my case, that involved emailing the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and saying I want to be put on the Do Not Call List.
My reaction when I get a scam telemarketer
when I'm on the Do Not Call List.
If you have the software the scammer installed on your computer, it's tedious, but rather easy to remove if you're tech savvy. Problem is, not everyone is tech savvy, so take it to a computer repair technician, and they'll fix the problem.
Or, in one hilarious case, these scammers called an IT professional that uses Linux as his OS. Hilarity ensued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyor7MtS3TU
In short, these scammers are wastes of human skin, lying and scamming consumers out of their money.
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