A Bogus Call From "Windows" Reveals Scam

Be wary of anyone claiming to be from "Windows"

A few weeks ago my friend Monique called me and reported that someone from "Windows" called her and said that her computer had been sending out private information about her and the person wanted her to download and install something.  She told the guy that she didn't really know much about the computer and asked if he could call back in half an hour when her husband would be in.

That's when she called me.  The big red flag for me was the fact that the guy said he was calling from "Windows."  I asked Monique if she was sure he said "windows" and not Microsoft.  She was sure.  So I came over and we waited for the phone to ring.  I was not disappointed.

When I got on the phone I asked the guy where he was calling from and he said England.  He had a bit of a non-British accent but I'm not sure what it was; possibly Indian, I'm not certain.  He confirmed he was calling from Windows and I asked him if he meant Microsoft and he repeated that he was calling from Windows, from the technical division. He said that a technician would help me solve the "problem" and it may cost money if the problem was really severe.

I pretended to play along to see what he was up to.  He wanted me to download a file from a website which would allow him to "inspect" the computer.  I was familiar with the program because it is a legitimate program similar to VLC used to log onto people's computers, usually used by technicians and engineers to take over a PC.  I deliberately frustrated him by pretending I just couldn't log onto the site, claiming it must be the virus that is interferring.  And he did get frustrated much to my pleasure.  He kept trying to get me to log onto a different website which was a redirector to the legitimate site.

If I had been a bit more keen I would have asked for his name, number and company name.  Instead, however, I just thanked him for the information and said I would reload my machine from scratch which would thereby destroy the virus.

In conclusion, let me tell you that this was indeed a scam which I looked up after the phonecall.  Here's more info from Microsoft's site.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-security/phone-call-scam-received-call-from-a-technician/6ed2b99c-20ff-468b-a69b-aec78b93f287

I'm glad Monique called me because I have not had to deal with that scam before or since then and it was good to have that experience.

That's it for now.
Happy computing!

Big Mike

What's Wrong With 2 AntiVirus Programs?

I just finished repairing a client's machine that had stopped being able to boot with an accompanying "blue screen of death" (BSD). Every time I tried to boot the machine it would get to the part where it was about to display the Welcome Screen, there'd be a BSD, and then the machine would reboot leading to the same result.

Although I cannot say for certain, I suspect that if my client had taken this machine to FutureShop or Staples, he might have been told his computer would need to be reloaded with Windows.  What did I do to fix it?  I hooked his hard drive up to my Test Machine and ran chkdsk.  That fixed some garbled entries of the Master File Table (MFT).  I was then able to put the drive back into the client's tower and was then able to boot.

Once it was booted up I was able to make an educated guess as to what happened and why the machine crashed in the first place.  I saw three things right away that I believe were unwitting culprits.

1. System time was off by about 15 minutes. Windows Update depends on your machine being in sync with Microsoft's servers.  Some updates just won't happen if the time it out by more than a few minutes.  Having the time go astray is often the result of a low battery on the motherboard.
2. Recent updates had glitched after a reboot.  Once I was able to fix the MFT and get the machine up and running, it finished these recent updates.
3. There were two AV programs: BitDefender and Avast.

So what's wrong with having two anti-virus programs?  When I asked my client later he said that he thought two would be better than one and that they would work together as a team.  I politely informed him that this is not the case.  In fact, the two programs will compete to try to do the same job.

Suppose one program detects a virus and quarantines it (as it should).  Later, the second program scans the same machine, and finds the virus again, but this time it's found in the quarantine folder of the first AV program.  The second program will try unsuccessfully to quarantine it but won't be able to because the file has been locked (quarantined) so as not to contaminate the machine again.

What happens after that varies.  Sometimes the machine just gets really slow.  Sometimes it crashes.

Can you see how this would be a problem?  Two anti-virus programs do not work together "as a team;" rather, they will fight to see who can do the job first.  It is my hope that after reading this article you will know better and save yourself some future frustration and cash.

Happy computing!

Big Mike