Blocked computer scam

[Tringa]

As we don't have a dedicated IT forum on WaB, I guess PCs are General Equipment so I put this here.

Apologies to those who have already heard about this one.

I think it first appeared around January this year but has recently resurfaced.

It takes the form of an on screen message that says Met Police and Strathclyde police investigations have detected activity from your PC involving illegal sites, possibly pornography, child pornography or terrorism involving Alkaieda and your PC has been locked. To unlock the PC you need to pay £x and it tells you how to do it. Sometimes the message includes what look like police logos.

I'm sure none of us would be taken in by it, but you may know someone who uses a PC but is less Internet and PC savvy and may be worried by it, especially as it appears to have links to the police. So if you hear of anyone who has this little nasty do tell them that its is a scam and under no circumstances should they pay anything.

My PC got it about a week or so ago - I'm guessing from a link on a webpage somewhere - and it does stop all access. The machine will boot up but then goes into the message page and you cannot do anything.

Fortunately it is easy to remove. Malwarebytes, which is a free security program, finds and destroys it. Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware, anti-virus and spyware removal download

If you don't have it already I'd recommend it. Free, small and runs quickly.

Bootup in Safe mode and run Malwarebytes and the problem is solved.

Must admit I had a bit of a chuckle at the message. The idea that the Met would find activity of the type described, tell you they had found it and then give you your PC back so you can continue, if you pay up.

And "Alkaieda" LOL - I think I used to take that for hangovers!

Have a good New Year all and lets be careful out there.

Dave

[BillyPilgrim]

There's also a phone-based scam doing the rounds at the moment.

I've been called a couple of times by someone who pretends that they are from the 'broadband security team' (or some other similar nonsense) and they have detected a problem with my account.

They tell me to switch on my pc/laptop and they will talk me through what to do next. I get bored at this point and tell them to p*** off but I imagine the next thing they will do is ask for my IP address etc. so they can connect to my laptop and go about their dodgy business?

[glsammy]

I've had something similar.
Mine was from someone from Microsoft with a security problem. Knowing how it's impossible to EVER speak to someone from there, to realise it's a scam was simple.
I played them along for about ten minutes at least costing them some money in phone charges before telling them to go and get a real job instead of trying to con people.

[davedotcom]

I work in IT Security and these kind of social engineering scams are so common, yet it's frightening how successful they are. There will always be people who are naive or too trusting to question these things attacks, and always swines willing to exploit them - it's a constant uphill battle!

Protect your personal information and don't trust anyone!

[nightshade]

Don't believe anyone that e-mails you unless you know them personally,
don't follow links supplied check out the info yourself, for instance Malware Bytes, look it up on google (apologies to the OP for using that example) Most of this sort of rubbish will not use your name. There was a piece of software that checked out a URL and gave details of its origin if you just had to know

[david156]

Originally Posted by glsammy

I've had something similar.
Mine was from someone from Microsoft with a security problem. Knowing how it's impossible to EVER speak to someone from there, to realise it's a scam was simple.
I played them along for about ten minutes at least costing them some money in phone charges before telling them to go and get a real job instead of trying to con people.

I had the same call. I let them waffle on for about ten minutes aswell. Kept asking them questions and getting them to explain things. Trouble was I was getting bored and not concentrating and let slip that I used an imac and they hung up on me which I thought was very rude!

[fairplay]

I have an IMac too, but I must confess I'm pretty gullible/thick when it comes to computers. I believe the only reason I haven't got a virus or malware or whatever they call them, is because of the clever filters built into Macs (well, that's what the Apple store in Norwich tell me)

But say I do get one of these messages as mentioned in the opening post and I am 'locked out' how would I be able to install any anti virus/spyware removal downloads if my Mac is unresponsive ?

Neil.

[artdemole]

Might have to re-boot from cd backup disks.Should copy all now and then.To be on safeside.

[Dorts]

I just tell them I have a Mac, and they will 'hang-up'. Computer Viruses are not normally written for Macs. Due to them being far less common, it would be very unproductive.
Dorts.

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by Dorts

I just tell them I have a Mac, and they will 'hang-up'. Computer Viruses are not normally written for Macs. Due to them being far less common, it would be very unproductive.
Dorts.

Thanks for that, I have 'Time Machine' with external hard drive for storage anyway, but it's good to know Macs are still considered 'not worth it'.

Neil.