Hackers Pose as Microsoft Engineers to Obtain Bank Account Details

Jack

Administrator
Thread author
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 24, 2011
9,377
A new breed of hackers use a combination between computer viruses and phone calls to make unsuspecting victims give up their bank details, making them believe they are paying to renew a software license.

According to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, one of the victims is a 63-year-old woman from Hampton who found the screen of her PC filled with error messages.

Moments later she received a phone call from what seemed to be a representative of Microsoft Help and Support.

“It is a very good scam. I had error messages coming up on my screen three times before and then I had a call from Microsoft care support. I thought about it but then I just felt ‘would a hacker really phone me?’,” she revealed.

“The man said he needed to check my software, so I let him have access to the computer. I was a bit worried but the Microsoft logo came up and it looked authentic,” she continued.

The hacker informed the woman she needed to pay a sum of money to renew her software license which has expired.

Cautiously, she told him that she needed to think about it and asked for a phone number to later contact the representative. That's when the cybercriminal got mad and threatened the woman that she would be blacklisted if she refused to pay. Meanwhile, the hackers froze the device in an attempt to intimidate her.

The senior citizen panicked and shutdown the computer to prevent the possible theft of a bank statement present on the hard drive. As a precaution, she changed all her online passwords relating to important accounts.

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I

illumination

This type of scenario where senior citizens are being harassed and threatened to make a buck, does nothing but infuriate me! The lack of conscience now days is really bothering me..
 
D

Deleted member 178

when money comes in line, some people forget any loyalty to friends or family so it is not surprising they dont care of strangers.
 

jamescv7

Level 85
Verified
Honorary Member
Mar 15, 2011
13,070
People must be conscious on what they give information especially bank account, and they must know that the person was to be trusted and not from unknown people.
 
I

illumination

jamescv7 said:
People must be conscious on what they give information especially bank account, and they must know that the person was to be trusted and not from unknown people.

I agree to an extent, but you have to keep in mind, there are so many out there, that can not define the fine line of who to trust and not with this, as they just do not know the difference, especially in this case with a senior, was good to see she questioned it, as most would not of, they would have trusted what they were being told, and took advantage of.
 

Hungry Man

New Member
Jul 21, 2011
669
No real way to protect against this... until phones start getting blacklists or reputation based calls =p
 

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