I.T. advice...

MegaSteve

MegaSteve

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Apologies if the answer to this is obvious... I am very much an analog man in a digital age... Earlier today I had an unsolicited 'phone call from someone who was telling me that without my realising it my laptop was in 'danger'... Didn't get all of his spiel, partly because of his dialect and partly because I am a little deaf... Anyhows he asked me to press the microsoft flag key and r key simultaneously which opened a 'box' which I had to type eventvwr in [well I think thats what he asked]... Anyway by this point I was starting to have second thoughts and hung up... Was this just a scam? or Should I have done as asked...

Can't ask my usual I.T. guru as he has, rather inconsiderately, gone abroad for the week...

Thanks in advance for any advice/help...
 
What you need to ask yourself is why is a random stranger calling you saying your laptop is in danger? How would they know if you've never met them before?

Shouldn't listen to advice from people you haven't asked for help from.

:)
 
I've just run eventvwr to see what happens.

Not much is available to a scammer, but it IS a scam. The idea is to "con" you into seeing lots of scary exclamation marks and get you to PAY to have your computer cleaned.

It's a genuine and necessary part of the Windows operating system. You should NEVER need to view the information as far a I can tell. Best left alone.

NEVER, EVER run anything on your computer/laptop unless you are talking to your internet service provider or someone you know and trust.

You got away lightly.
 
Unless you did anything else, or they poked around in the settings, you'll be OK. I've had a major look around in there and it's quite dull.

Read this, taken directly from Microsoft Q and A?

"For your peace of mind -- as well as the curiosity of others who may be wondering -- the Event Viewer is a purely diagnostic tool. I don't think I've ever seen an entry in Event Viewer that contained "sensitive" information, but even if it did show anything like that, the only way that a person calling you could know about it would be if you read it aloud to them (or copied it and emailed it or posted it online).

The far more dangerous part of this scam -- aside from actually paying for useless advice and thus giving them both money and your credit card info -- is when they ask you to go to a website and log in with a password that they provide. This enables them to remotely access your computer. After that, the sky's the limit."

:)
 
Event viewer is simply a log that windows adds to for diagnostic reasons. They get you to look in there as guaranteed there will be some red 's and exclamation marks. Next, they tell you that they are signs of outside misuse and they can fix it. From here they ask you to go to a website and enable them to connect to your pc. They scavange your internet cache etc and any useful info they can find to either rip you off or pretend to be you to make money at your expense.
Bottom line is that noone should offer help unless you go seeking it first.
 
brendy said:
Event viewer is simply a log that windows adds to for diagnostic reasons. They get you to look in there as guaranteed there will be some red 's and exclamation marks. Next, they tell you that they are signs of outside misuse and they can fix it. From here they ask you to go to a website and enable them to connect to your pc. They scavange your internet cache etc and any useful info they can find to either rip you off or pretend to be you to make money at your expense.
Bottom line is that noone should offer help unless you go seeking it first.
Click to expand...

Or they make you download a paid for anti virus wichita is a Trojan and does all of the above...and you've paid for it...and signed the t n c on install
 
SCAM.
They convince you that, due to various warnings in EventViewer, that your computer is close to shutting down.
They scare people into thinking that it can be easily overcome if the owner would let the scammers have remote control of their computer for a few moments.
It's at that point that they download their virus, which, only they can eradicate, and all for about £100!
I get quite a few of these calls & I now play them at their own game by trying to sell them double glazing, re-claiming mis-sold PPI, offering to get them compensation for that accident at work that they didn't have etc., etc., etc.
BUT I WON'T give them any personal ID what-so-ever, even after I've obtained the first line of their address & postcode............which I have done on more than one occasion.

Slime.
 
I've had this call SEVERAL times, which is fun. I do all the pc repairs in our house and several others as I have trained in pc maintenance and repair. To have some fool call me and tell me that I "have a problem with windows" is very entertaining. Sometimes I will even string them along for a while while playing cards.
Most of the time I just tell them I have to get the pc owner and can they hold for a minute or 2. Put the phone on secrecy and leave it to see how long they stay there. Record so far is 20 minutes. It's also longer and longer between calls from them too.
 
My boss's dad, an elderly gent but a wise and switched on one once got this call.

He followed all the advice as it was given, even asked the odd question or two.

Some time into the call he was told his PC was riddled with viruses and needed to install some software. He then proclaimed.

"Thats funny, I don't have a computer... Ohh my toast has popped up!"
 
ScienceBoy said:
My boss's dad, an elderly gent but a wise and switched on one once got this call.

He followed all the advice as it was given, even asked the odd question or two.

Some time into the call he was told his PC was riddled with viruses and needed to install some software. He then proclaimed.

"Thats funny, I don't have a computer... Ohh my toast has popped up!"
Click to expand...

:rofl:

We get those annoying calls from "Microsoft engineers" who tell me my recently purchased PC has a fault that they have to fix. We just put the phone down. Evil scammers.
 
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