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A new kind of pfishing?

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Russell Standish-2

A new kind of pfishing?

We've had these sorts of calls in Australia for last 2-3 years. My
wife had fun playing sport with one about 6 months ago. I usually
hang up straight away - like Doug said, there was no point mentioning
that we're a Linux (mostly) household.

I remember reading a blog by an internet security consultant, who spun
up a virtual machine whilst on the phone, and let them into it, just
to see what they did. Needless to say, they were not particularly
sophisticated, and hang up immediately he revealed to them how he'd
conned them.

I don't have a reference, and Google not really helping at present...

Cheers

On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 01:55:42PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

> Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing?
>
>
>
> I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian
> sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error
> messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the
> number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it
> to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them,
> I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can
> imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for.
>
>
>
> Does anybody recognize this?
>
>
>
> N
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
> http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/>
>
>
>
>
>

> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

--

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email]
University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Brent Auble

Re: A new kind of pfishing?

Here are some links to the person you're likely thinking of (arranged chronologically):

Anatomy of a virus call centre scam

http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/10/anatomy-of-virus-call-centre-scam.html

Scamming the scammers – catching the virus call centre scammers red-handed

http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/02/scamming-scammers-catching-virus-call.html

Interview with the man behind Comantra, the “cold call virus scammers”

http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/05/interview-with-man-behind-comantra-cold.html

And then, of course, there's Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/microsoft.asp

Sadly, I haven't gotten one of these calls yet, but then again, I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I'd enjoy wasting their time, since that's all that can really be done to punish them.

Brent

From: Russell Standish <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 3:21 AM
Subject: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Owen Densmore

Re: A new kind of pfishing?

Administrator

Glad we discussed this, its new to me and pretty interesting! Thans Nick.

-- Owen

Brent Auble

Re: A new kind of pfishing?

In reply to this post by Brent Auble

Actually, here's another good overview of the scam with suggestions about what to do:

https://windowssecrets.com/top-story/security-alert-bogus-tech-support-phone-calls/

Brent

From: Russell Standish <[hidden email]>
To: Brent Auble <[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?

Thanks. I think it was the middle article I read.

On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 01:22:57AM -0700, Brent Auble wrote:

> Here are some links to the person you're likely thinking of (arranged chronologically):
>
> Anatomy of a virus call centre scam
> http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/10/anatomy-of-virus-call-centre-scam.html
>
> Scamming the scammers – catching the virus call centre scammers red-handed
> http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/02/scamming-scammers-catching-virus-call.html
>
> Interview with the man behind Comantra, the “cold call virus scammers”
> http://www.troyhunt.com/2012/05/interview-with-man-behind-comantra-cold.html
>
>
> And then, of course, there's Snopes:
> http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/microsoft.asp
>
>
> Sadly, I haven't gotten one of these calls yet, but then again, I usually don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. I'd enjoy wasting their time, since that's all that can really be done to punish them.
>
> Brent
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Russell Standish <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> Sent: Saturday, March 16, 2013 3:21 AM
> Subject: [FRIAM] A new kind of pfishing?
>
> We've had these sorts of calls in Australia for last 2-3 years. My
> wife had fun playing sport with one about 6 months ago. I usually
> hang up straight away - like Doug said, there was no point mentioning
> that we're a Linux (mostly) household.
>
> I remember reading a blog by an internet security consultant, who spun
> up a virtual machine whilst on the phone, and let them into it, just
> to see what they did. Needless to say, they were not particularly
> sophisticated, and hang up immediately he revealed to them how he'd
> conned them.
>
> I don't have a reference, and Google not really helping at present...
>
> Cheers
>
> On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 01:55:42PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
> > Can anybody confirm this as a new form of pfishing?
> >
> >
> >
> > I got a call from a number in DC today, somebody with a strong Indian
> > sub-continent accident, telling me that my computer was sending error
> > messages to the network and offering to help me correct them. (I have the
> > number in my phone trap, and would report it if I knew where to report it
> > to.) The next step involved my going on my computer and connect it to them,
> > I assume. These guys were pretty bad at what they were doing,, but I can
> > imagine a more subtle line that I might have fallen for.
> >
> >
> >
> > Does anybody recognize this?
> >
> >
> >
> > N
> >
> >
> >
> > Nicholas S. Thompson
> >
> > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
> >
> > Clark University
> >
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
> >
> > http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>
>
> --
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
> Principal, High Performance Coders
> Visiting Professor of Mathematics [hidden email]
> University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com