*Microsoft support scammer* Yeah I was just having some issues, uh, so
I thought I'd give you guys a call to help. What happened what is the problem right now.
So I was on my computer and then there was this pop-up issue and now my computer is kind of
freaking out and I'm just not sure what to do. Can you read me the message So the message isn't up anymore but I'm having issues with pretty much all
the programs on my computer. Yeah and when did this thing happened?
Two minute, five minute, ten minutes? Yeah about 10 minutes ago or so. I've been trying to figure it out myself but I
just I don't know what to do. um Apart from you has anyone else use your computer? U m no I'm the only one who uses the computer And how old is the computer? Um oh that's a good question it's, it's pretty old um for a computer at least
probably at least five years yeah. And what is the purpose for you to use
the computer? Personal, financial..? Um a little bit of everything I use it
a lot for work um but personal as well. Thank you for doing people with the
finance can work in the computer yeah. like what? you do *inaudible* yeah all of that I really use it for everything Is it a laptop or is a desktop computer?
it's a laptop. did you ever connect this laptop to other
network like in public Wi-Fi network? yes I have used public Wi-Fi before
OK in a few steps I'm going to follow in your computer okay okay You will look on the keyboard in
the very bottom lefthand side corner please. do you see control key? yes which key do you see there? is it FN? yes you need to press and hold it down along
with the window key. f and n and hold down. ok While the same time letter R. R as in Romeo Ok These will make a little window open and
a screen in the bottom left hand corner um...no I don't. what do you see? do you see
in your screen right now Do you see a home screen or everything
is open? What do you see there? So I just see the window to search is
up with some of my apps on the computer Look on the keyboard, do you
see the little window key? yeah like those four boxes?
the wind yeah it looks like a window Ok press F and hold it down, you
have to press and keep hold it down oh hold it down okay
while we will keep pressing and hold it down the window key
at the same time that letter R like Romeo. okay now do you see any run window open in
your in bottom left hand side corner? now I do it's a little like white box and it
says run on the top and it says type the name of a program folder document or Internet
resource and windows will open it for you do you see any program known in the
beginning there or is it blank right now right now it looks like it's blank and are you hold it down here or
do you already release the key? I have I I are you holding down the windows
keys? or did you let it go I let it go now, I held it down
for a while but I let it go now I tell you the program name
and look for the run box you'll find the run box next to the program do
you see anything in there or is it blank page? um looks like it's blank right now i want you to type letter H as in Hotel H as in Hotel T as in tiger we have a tiger then E has in Ele-sylvania E? Or P? P. P as in Pennsylvania okay.
then S as in Sam. Okay then put the colon sign after the S put
the colon sign like a two dot then forward slash forward slash two forward slash
M as in Michael, Y as in the yellow and H E L P then L I V E live Okay um it looks like "htps" colon (:) no, HTTPS https. P as in Paul Two T's? I think you just said one t yes it is two times t h and t and a t and p p as in papa P is in Papa Okay m s as in sam Trying not to laugh here read back to me before you do
anything please read it back to me So the https colon my help live dot live Dot live So what exactly is this doing your computer is breached right
now there are some bad computer hackers so when they're trying
to compromise your identity okay Okay that's scary, but also what
exactly are we doing here to fix it? i am guiding every step and follow
it so I can able to go ahead and picture all the problems okay I've been with us I got like an error message
it said windows cannot find it you type in the run box can
you please read it back to me https/myhelp.live h t t p s right? it's a very simple program whenever you type the program there
is a man from there "https" right ? Yeah I think I have it in there right,
I don't know why it's not working. you can read it like if you have any doubts
you're gonna make it blank and type once again. maybe there is some worded
confused let me type one more time? Can we just take a step back
for a second because I'm just pretty confused as to what this is
gonna do to help fix my computer you are speaking with microsoft computer right?
that's why you are calling over here. right? Where are you guys located? we located in austin. texas. Wow is the weather there right now is it hot? oh God where are you from? Where am I from? yeah Wisconsin it's cold here in Wisconsin. oh Is it, is it hot in Texas? do you like cold? do you like warm? I prefer warm but I don't mind the cold. oh right, i like cold Oh you do? would love..yeah Are you in Texas right now, or
are you located somewhere else? i'm in office You're in Texas? yeah in texas. austin texas. And is it hot there today? yeah What's - what how many degrees is
it? How hot is it there by you? can't check that Oh sure you can't even check the weather on your
work computer? You have to only do work stuff? yeah because the for the
security purpose cannot allow Now do you and your family live in Texas? ah..no Where do you and your family live? my whole family is in india In India? My name is Judy j-u-d-y ok? last name? Smith it's s-m-i-t-h. Judy Smith ok cool. s-m-i-t-h right?
Right And what is your name? michael
Michael? yes What's your last name Michael? It's l-e-e, I can't quite I have a feeling we're both giving fake names. Is that your real name? ah no.. It's not?
*sigh* it's not. What's your real name?
my real name? Yeah my real name is uh Aditya
it's a-d-i-t-y-a like Aditya yes ha ha ha. right you are good pronunciation. Well I just don't like to open programs
on my computer when I don't know exactly, like, what it's gonna do. You know? mhm. mhm. you're also connecting this laptop
to the office networks okay? Yes. Don't let - don't let people
I don't know use my computer. most important is to never pass that information
for anyone else like the user ID password detail any card information any banking
information anything to it right? Right, don't share that personal information
with other people. That's a good tip. right
Yeah okay so it happens a lot and how exactly do you help people with these issues?
I have a lot of the need to can go ahead and take all the relationships
we update the software divert And you do that by getting like
remote access to their computer? sometimes.
So you guys would never like access somebody else's computer or
something or you know steal their information? no noooo. we don't have authorize to ask
them uh, like any personal information. nice work. if you need any help or
any information you can call ok? Alright..you too bye-bye. That was one of the more interesting and unique.
We were on that call a long time I think almost 30 minutes total and um he did give me his
phone number which might not be real but he gave me what I think to be his real name first he
said his name was Michael Lee so a lot of times scammers from all over the place use fake names
or more English sounding names like that and he gave me what I do believe is his real name Aditya
a-d-i-t-y-a usually I have to kind of stall quite a bit to keep them talking to waste more of
the scammers time but in this case he was just a Chatty Cathy he was talking and talking and
talking and I could just sit there and listen for about half the time so that was interesting
I never successfully used what I believe was a remote desktop connection that he was trying to
use to access my computer to get access to my personal information but at the end of the call
there he was giving you guys tips right there the scammer giving you tips on how to not get
scammed how terribly ironic um so a lot of times with these I do believe that sometimes scammers
don't know what they're doing they are led to believe that they are help helping people and so
they might be misled as well and not really know that they're misleading people however a lot
of them do know that they're misleading people um but it's their jobs and this is what they do
so happens very frequently and this was a very personable guy you know he was very eager
to engage in personal conversation with me which sometimes they're not they just want to
get back to business get back to their script um but he was just chatting away with me so I
don't know I don't know if this one knew what he was doing and was just being sick about it
or truly felt that he was helping people I doubt it but who knows I like to believe the best in
people even though we talked to scammers a lot so BBB has some good tips uh as the scammer did
in this case on tech support scams so a lot of times the calls will come through um to you or
there will be like a pop-up on the computer in fact about half of all tech support scams begin
with an alert on the victim's computer screen so a lot of times an alert will come up I knew
that so that's why I said something came up on my computer and that's why I called um that's
that's about half of what happens to to victims or people who may fall victim to a scam so
always look out for those warning screens um there really shouldn't be a reason that
something would pop up especially with a phone number telling you to call never ever give control
of your computer to somebody you don't know unless you're absolutely sure it's a representative of
a legitimate computer support team or I.T team that you know and trust otherwise just never do it
never even go to one of those remote desktop sites there are several of them and two legitimate tech
support companies don't make unsolicited phone calls so if you get a phone call and somebody says
there's something wrong with your computer big red flag right there that is that is almost always not
a legitimate call um and and finally be aware of clicking on unfamiliar links and emails as well
sometimes there will be an email that comes up especially if your email address is affiliated
with your internet provider or your antivirus software whatever it might be if you get an email
saying something about how they think something's wrong with your computer or your antivirus is
out of date whatever it might be be sure to to just delete that right away don't click on any
links and then if you do fall victim to a tech support scam happens a lot specifically with older
adults who are not very familiar with technology in general but it happens to everybody nobody
is free from falling victim to scam it happens to a lot of people I've personally known several
people who have fallen victim to scams like these it happens all the time so if you do fall victim
to a tech support scam first of all contact your bank immediately and let them know what happened
so that they can be aware of any charges that come through that weren't issued by you and
then take the infected laptop or tablet or mobile device whatever it is to a trusted local
business so you can search local tech companies at bbb.org and find one that you can trust use
a BBB accredited business we always recommend and then change all your passwords I know this
one's a huge pain but if they gained access to your computer they now have access to all of
your passwords and can log into everything of course logging into your bank is number one to
get money but even other uh your credit cards your even just your email being able to log into your
email and then send illegitimate messages to somebody else there's just a lot that they can
do if they're able to log into your computer so be sure to reset all of your passwords and
finally please let us know if you've seen scams like this have you ever fallen victim or known
somebody who's fallen victim to a scam like this let us know in the comments below and stay safe
out there there are lots of scams going around right now I have personally seen an increase
in scam calls I have heard a lot of different scams going on so if you guys hear of any please
report them to BBB.org scam tracker so that we can help to do more to protect the public from scams
like this thanks so much for watching stay safe
