Telephone scam

[show-Zi]

The fraud group set up a branch in Thailand.
Phone scams are classic, but they tend to be larger and more sophisticated.
15 Japanese arrested in Thailand raid accused of scamming more than ¥225 million

hello,@TRS-80
Here are some fraudulent telephone fighting goods sold in Japan. You don't have to spend your precious time with the scammers.

 

[bigpanda539]

Yesteday I was called by a gentleman with such a thick accent, it was hard for me to understand him. He introduced himself as "Microsoft employee". "We can see on our servers, that your computer is about to be hacked"! LOL really? I was thinking "new tech support scam".
At that time I knew more or less this was BS, but I wanted to hear some more.
"So please sir, open your computer and we will fix this very fast"! That was enough so I hung up and blocked the number.

In the afternoon my phone rang again from another number. When I took it, a thick accent greeted me (sigh), and started to talk about Microsoft again. When the woman (They are diverse,lol) started her BS, I said "but hey, I dont have a computer!!!"
2 or 3 seconds with complet silence, and then she hung up, and I blocked the number.

I have not seen or heard about this one before. But they will probably get some new computer owners. Their biggest flaw, is the thick accent. If you know just a little bit about computer fraud, they give themself away just by talking.

So if someone with a heavy accent (Africa-India I simply cant tell) call you "from Microsoft" save some time, just hang up and block the number.

I personally always ignore those calls. Sometimes they leave VMs, sometimes they don't. I usually just look up the numbers on Google or some complaint boards to see if people have reported them as scam calls. I found some reports filed at Beware of 3157914443 about similar tech support scams recently. I just block the number, though.

 

[uninfected1]

I get loads of these sorts of calls. I actually find them quite amusing, although there are obviously not for the unfortunate people who get taken in by these scum. The latest one was a recorded message saying HM Revenue and Customs (UK equivalent of the IRS) had filed a lawsuit against me and I should ring a number regarding it.

 

[TRS-80]

@uninfected1 & @show-Zi & everyone else.

I get loads of these sorts of calls. I actually find them quite amusing, although there are obviously not for the unfortunate people who get taken in by these scum. The latest one was a recorded message saying HM Revenue and Customs (UK equivalent of the IRS) had filed a lawsuit against me and I should ring a number regarding it.

Good old HMRC!

I hope you haven't turned blue whilst holding your breath, terrified, waiting for the summons!

I just derive a great sense of satisfaction(perverse) “playing” with the heads of the fraudsters. Just wish I could shut them down permanently.

I hope everyone here is wise enough not to fall into the trap of letting them in. Their payloads are increasingly sophisticated. There's often a lot of more minor malware installed on access, purely designed to distract the user from the various remote access and control programs.

It can be difficult to follow precisely what the criminals are actually doing once they're in your machine; in realtime(unless you prepare in advance.) A lot of what they install is done using prepared scripts. They run fast. Just don't let them in!

On one machine I am dealing with in my spare time, I found the following, all installed by phone fraudsters. None were installed by genuine remote assistance. The computer was owned by a woman in her mid 60s who is not “tech savvy.”

*Note: Many of the below are legitimate programs when used appropriately.*

LogMeIn Rescue or LMIR. - Unbranded

TeamViewer

AnyDesk - With logs.

AnyDesk(1)

Windroye

Windroye Box

Hiren's Boot CD (Win XP ver. unpacked not *.iso)

Masses of PuPs.

Keyloggers

Spyware

8+ Generic Trojans

2 x Ransomware, including BlackRouter/BlackHeart(ransom payload failed to deploy.) This is a probable source of AnyDesk's presence.

Plus a whole lot more......

AnyDesk's makers stated not too long ago that they are addressing such abuses. However, as of June, 2019, this appears(from log content) to have been the favoured tool to commit the offences.

Windroye and Windroye Box are mentioned solely due to the involvement of a cell phone, via the computer and, the defeat of 2FA on the cell phone. This permitted virtually unfettered access to the owner's bank accounts.

The total cost of the breach is now approaching AUD$35,000 and we're not done yet. I may actually post a non-technical overview of the case once it's complete.

That's the serious side of these people's criminal pursuits.


Take care & stay vigilant.

 

[show-Zi]

Fraudulent face-to-face pc support services are sometimes discussed in Japan. Most of the victims seem to be elderly people who are not used to handling pc.

 

[TRS-80]

@show-Zi ,


I honestly don't know how anyone could be so low as to target the elderly. Particularly face to face.

Hopefully Karma will catch up with the criminals sooner rather than later!

We can but try to educate others to the risks and, give the criminals a good kick where it hurts.

Take care!


@TRS-80