Identity Theft Scam

I recently received a phone message on my home phone claiming to be from the Taxation Department and talking about some error in my taxation records. There is also a threat about legal action against me.

I knew that there is no way the Tax Office would be contacting me by phone and smelled a rat. I checked the Australian Government's Scam Watch page and there it was in their ScamWatch Radar link. The phone number is different but the methodology is the same.

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/reportascam/

Please also notice that the Australian Government sites all end in ".gov.au".

Play the above video to hear the phone message in it's entirety.

A word on Identity Theft: You will be surprised how little information is needed from you to steal your identity. Your tax file number and bank account number and address or date of birth may be all that's necessary to reset your banking passwords and allow thieves to take out loans in your name or access your bank accounts.

Also if you are an avid Facebook fan please limit the amount of personal information you list in your profile. Someone will be looking for it.

Be careful and check with ScamWatch if you suspect a scam.

Windows Support Scam

I have been called on several occasions by overseas call centres claiming to be from 'Windows Support', telling me that my PC has been sending out error messages or 'bad traffic' on the internet.

They seem to target people that use their PC's infrequently to perhaps browse the internet and clear email. A seasoned PC user will start to smell a rat immediately.

THIS IS A SCAM.

All they want is your money and perhaps leave you with a web-bot or bot-net installed on your PC.

Their tactics are as follows:

• Instruct you to open task manager, msconfig or your eventvwr to view your log files.
• They will convince you that you are looking at the bad traffic or stopped services.
• They will ask you to browse to a 'desktop sharing' software site (these change over time).
• They will instruct you to download and install it.
• They will then ask you to run the software and you will be asked for passwords.
• At this point they are into your system and can do what they want.
• You may also be asked to pay a fee of around US$80.00 for a year's worth of maintenance.
• They will direct you to a site to pay the $80 via a credit card.
• Congrats they now have your name, credit card number and the 3 digit code.

So not only have you been scammed, you have paid them for the privilege.

Have a listen to a recording of a typical call.
https://soundcloud.com/csoonline/microsoft-support-scam

So what is a bot-net?

A bot-net is a piece of insidious software that turns your PC into a 'robot' that takes orders from a central 'command & control' server hidden somewhere on the internet. It receives instructions to send out spam, phishing emails, or denial of service attacks aimed at targets as per instructed from the command & control server. In most cases these web-bots are not detected by industry standard virus scanners. They go undetected for years. All you may notice is a slight slow down of your PC at times.

Once your PC has a web-bot installed, and there are millions of them out there. Your PC becomes a commodity that's bought, sold or rented out to criminals for lots of purposes. Some may want to send millions of spam emails quickly. Some may want to build email lists (from our inboxes). Some want to hit Government servers with denial-of-service attacks. The list goes on.

How do you get rid of a bot-net?

If you're lucky you can use a tool that identifies and removes them. If you're not, you need to format and re-install Windows. Be warned, some of the tools to remove them also contain newer ones. That's the catch 22. Who can you trust? I suggest the re-install. It's the only safe method. You can save all your data, pictures and video's before hand. You will need to re-install ALL of your added software from the original cd's. NEVER restore software from a backup as the web-bot may be in your backups.

Why are the call centres making the calls?

They are paid to do it. Many bot-net operators actually pay call centres to make the calls and train them specifically in the task. The call centres may not actually know what they are really doing. I have heard of some of them transferring your call to a 'level 1 technician' who will do the repair. By this they wash their hands of 'blame'. These calls usually take your $80 first, before transferring you.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."

Now that you know this, tell your friends that are perhaps less computer literate.