A very clever scam

General Chat
1

i nearly got caught out with this earlier todayt it all looks very genuine a window pops up supposed to be from ‘windows defender’ and you think your locked out your computer , so natuarly you panic as it looks so real

there is a ‘microsoft’ number to call which again looks genuine and they then remote to your computer , during the 13 min call my partner googled it and found that it was a scam so the call was quickly ended the computer restarted and a virus check run 3 times

so a word of warning if you get a pop up from ‘windows defender’ make sure you have had a read of this first , i hate to think what would have happned to some one on their own

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2

This seems like scam 101 from 2003…
Pretty basic stuff really. Ignore popups, don’t ring “Microsoft”.

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3

^^^

This has been around for years but good awareness for those who may be susceptible to things like this.

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4

You’re lucky it wasn’t ransomware! Not quite as simple as just hanging up once you realise what’s going on.

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5

Have to stay off those dodgy sites :sweat_smile:

My only virus protection is and always has been since day of release, windows defender. Simple yet effective.

I casually run malewarebytes free every year or so just to be sure, and then give ccleaner a registry run to rid any unwanted stuff.

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6

I have to trust my Chromebook is doing the job it was designed to do. Tbf been using them years and never an issue at least.

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Make sure to uninstall the remote access program if you can see it.

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never came across it it def looks so genuine

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ha ha if only the annoying thing is that norton did not pick it up so i wonder if the real windows defender would have

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yeah deleted it right away :slight_smile:

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Norton is a waste of money IMO. Slows your computer down too.

Malwarebytes is good for things like this, worth doing a free scan to see what it finds.

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12

Do you think using DuckDuckGo or Bravo browsers can help here? I am only relying on Windows Defender by the way.

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I’ve only ever really used chrome, and now windows edge as it’s more efficient than most.

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14

Thanks for the rapid reply.

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15

cheers downloaded the free trial its not found any thing which is good thankfully :slight_smile:

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16

There should be a total free version too. Remember to cancel your trial :sweat_smile:

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17

There isn’t really anything to pickup, there was nothing malicious for an anti virus to pick up, it was just a text popup with a phone number, no files or links to a known malicious site.

The file for remote access isn’t malicious either, it would be a normal remote access commercial tool like TeamViewer.

Just deleting the file may not be enough if the program installed itself if you clicked on it to run ? Do you remember which program remote access program was used?

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quick access which seems to be a microsoft thing , and then any desk which i have deleted

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19

I would recommend using the uBlock Origin extension for Chrome/Firefox/whatever browser you’re using. This will block a range of ads from known networks and I’ve found it is helpful for getting rid of those popups like the one mentioned in this post.

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cheers got that now as well