Yep, it's a Scam.

Pop up today, call Microsoft right away, you've been hacked. I couldn't turn the computer off or anything, it wouldn't let me.

Call 1-800 MS and got a nice Pakistani fellow, talked for 15 minutes, he showed me where there were 9,243 attempts to hack and 14 others actually using my IP address.

He referred me to a company in Texas, $389 to clean it up, $999.95 to install a firewall for one year.

When I tried to get Neo Cruz (the rep) to slow down a minute "Hey, I just got tagged for $400 and you want $1,000 to protect me for one year, I'm gonna need a minute here". Scam jockey hung up.

I called Time Warner and they just snickered, yeah; it's a scam.

Tell your friends....

Malwarebytes

Rkill

These two little bits have kept me protected for years. rkill is a small batch file, I personally have it set to run on startup, but it's a script that stalls out most types of malware actually allowing them to be stopped and deleted. I'm not sure how it works, or if it's even still necessary, but it has gotten me out of more than one jam.

Malwarebytes is the best free anti-malware, pseudo anti-virus I've ever found. It runs automatically, doesn't use much resource wise, and has a lot of little options like link protection and good filters.

Hoping you've gotten your system cleaned up by now, but that's a good catch before dropping moneys.

I've been surprised at a lot of the computer scams I've been hearing about the past few years. Haven't run into any personally, but ransomware, and these sorts of popups with half-assed call centers are pretty elaborate compared to how it used to be.

IRS has issued an arrest warrant for me and my person and property are being monitored according to the voicemail i got today

Yep, stop using Micro$haft products and these issues will be less of a problem.

At the very least, aside from ensuring there are properly configured firewalls between your computer and the internet, you should also remove any/all Adobe products from your system, then stop using Internet Explorer and use Chrome or Firefox with ad-blocking and JavaScript blocking extensions installed to reduce those common attack vectors (sorry GRM, the ad networks are horribly insecure and easy to breach)

If you want an idea of the types of security breaches that are on-going, sign up for the SANS newsletter.

patgizz wrote: IRS has issued an arrest warrant for me and my person and property are being monitored according to the voicemail i got today

I KNEW you were a Nigerian Price!

We got a call a few days ago telling us that we needed to do something with our computers- my wife argued with him, and gave me the phone. I gave him the run around until telling him that we have macs. I lied, but he thanked me and hung up.

Next time I'm going to ask which computer? Keep him on the phone for as long as I can for nothing.

Apparently these scam artists think my ding-dong is too small and needs help. Nope.

My elderly neighbors got hit with this, before making the call to the provided number, they called me, and I ran over and took care of their issue.

Removing Adobe is great, but so much uses their product, PDFs, Flash player... its a real issue most have to live with it.

Even worse than this scam is the one my GF's elderly parents where targeted with this week. They where one step away from loosing 4K, and they are on a limited income. They received a call from some one that sounded like their granddaughter, she played it well, chatted them up for about ten minutes, then told them she had been arrested and needed bail, and did not want to tell her parents over the phone. She then put the officer on the phone they stated they needed to go to Walmart and get 4 $1000 gift cards. While at Walmart buying 4K worth of gift cards with their credit card, they asked the sales person if the cards could be used for bail, she did not know, so she got some one else, they did not know, so the called the manager. Apparently the manager had at least a normal IQ and told them to call the police station and verify the story.

Its bad out there, dirt bags trying to take advantage of people every where.

I not only have I got the pop ups on my system in the past, but I have gotten cold calls telling me they see PC is hacked, even when it was not on.... Then there is the "this is card services" calls.

Apparently the warranty is about to expire on my vehicle. Uhoh.

In reply to patgizz:

That's nice that they warn you now. When they came for my boss I had to stand outside and pretend I didn't speak English with the body guys while they ransacked the shop.

etifosi wrote:

patgizz wrote: IRS has issued an arrest warrant for me and my person and property are being monitored according to the voicemail i got today

I KNEW you were a Nigerian Price!

Don't worry, etifosi. I reported him.

914Driver wrote: I couldn't turn the computer off or anything, it wouldn't let me.

Hold the power button down until it shuts off.

When I get the ones offering me a credit card with a credit balance, I like to have a little fun with them. Its kind of funny that after you tell them you are bankrupt, owe money to loan sharks and have lost your car to reposession, and badly need the new card to fend the ball bat guys off for a month, they still want to give you the card.

In reply to Keith Tanner: I get those too. Once when I was actually able to talk to a person I told them I was very concerned about warranty and wanted one for my 1970 Opel GT and for my 1963 MG Midget. They hung up.

Got one of those calls about my computer being infected with viruses and they could see it. Asked them how since my computer was turned off. He mumbled something and hung up.

Been getting calls lately that ask "are you or a family member suffering from substance abuse? Then call this number." Trying to tell me something I don't know. I mean it's been about a month or so since I've had a drink. And SWMBO doesn't.

Used to get calls about life insurance. I toyed with them for a while then used their own terminology on them and asked about coverage for "frequent aerial flight as a crewmember". That will make them hang up very quickly.

Stefan wrote: Yep, stop using Micro$haft products and these issues will be less of a problem.

I've gotten this exact sort of drive-by pop-up on my iPhone before, the message was tailored for iOS.

TenToeTurbo wrote:

914Driver wrote: I couldn't turn the computer off or anything, it wouldn't let me.

Hold the power button down until it shuts off.

RevRico wrote: Hoping you've gotten your system cleaned up by now....

I haven't done anything to it, care to walk me through it?

Wall-e wrote: In reply to patgizz: That's nice that they warn you now. When they came for my boss I had to stand outside and pretend I didn't speak English with the body guys while they ransacked the shop.

Did you used to work for Farnbacher Loles?

In reply to Huckleberry:

When I was young and dumb I took a part time job in a body shop. I had a ring side seat for someone who while the nicest guy you could meet was also being investigated for tax evasion and insurance fraud. They never caught on that he also passed some money to the local pd to steer work his way. I didn't know enough about the system back then to realize the scams he had going on but looking back they were ingenious and had he not gotten greedy/cocky he probably could have gone on forever. Thinking about out I'm still surprised I didn't come away with a record just by association.

Keith Tanner wrote: Apparently the warranty is about to expire on my vehicle. Uhoh.

Tell 'em Kyle Tanker voids factory vehicle warranties just by walking into the showroom.

EDIT: My most interesting scam was the "Lottery Winnings Division of the FBI" trying to deposit my unclaimed winnings into my bank account, just needed the account number. The real FBI was not amused, but too busy with terrorism at the time to do anything about it.

I'm not smart enough to prove it, but I am reasonably sure the owner of the computer store I used to do business with was the one putting viruses and other crap in my computer, which he could gladly fix for $50. Don't use his services anymore and don't have the mysterious problems either. Funny thing was that it was something an employee said that tipped me off to the situation.

kazoospec wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Apparently the warranty is about to expire on my vehicle. Uhoh.

Tell 'em Kyle Tanker voids factory vehicle warranties just by walking into the showroom.

Fun fact, we took three cars to lunch today: a 2016 and two 2017s. The powertrain warranty was still valid on one of the 2017s, but it's only got 350 miles on it and we'll be fixing that warranty problem shortly...

914Driver wrote:

RevRico wrote: Hoping you've gotten your system cleaned up by now....

I haven't done anything to it, care to walk me through it?

Start by downloading and running malwarebytes and see if it finds anything.

Tk8398 wrote:

914Driver wrote:

RevRico wrote: Hoping you've gotten your system cleaned up by now....

I haven't done anything to it, care to walk me through it?

Start by downloading and running malwarebytes and see if it finds anything.

If it won't let you download malwarebytes or rkill, I'll email you rkill to run.

But yes, stay with those, and when you think your good, maybe run avg antivirus just to be sure.