Fun With a Scammer

              I had such good fortune Friday. Sitting at the computer my phone rang. The party at the other end was very indistinct but I thought I could make out an Indian accent. Sure enough, the line cleared and it was a scammer telling me he was from Windows and I had bad downloads on my computer! Yay!! Paydirt.

I played along letting him explain how these bad downloads will slow down my computer and they can clean up the files for me. He went on and on, and I played like I was stupider and stupider. It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to do a “mini drama”. The main characters will be Jamie and the scammer. Here it goes.

Scammer: Hello, my name is Scammer. I work for Windows and we have detected bad Windows downloads on your computer. We need to clean up those programs to speed your computer up. (Note how he does not mention Microsoft)

Jamie: Oh my goodness, how did that happen?

Scammer: Well, blah, blah

Jamie: What can I do to fix this problem? This has never happened to me before; it must be a serious problem if the Windows Company is calling me.

Scammer: Look at your keyboard. In the lower left hand corner is the “control” key. Right next to it is the Windows key with a flag. Hit that Windows key and the R as in Ronald key at the same time.

Jamie: Oh my God, a box just opened up on my screen

Scammer: Good, Now type in “www.  letmein123.”

Now the tables turn…..

Jamie: But wait, what will happen if I type this in?

Scammer: I will give you a code and that will allow us to fix the bad downloads on your computer.

Jamie: I’m not the administrator on this computer. I’m at work. I’m not allowed to visit such sites.

Scammer: Oh yes you can, just type in that address into that space and we will fix everything.

Jamie: Oh no… I’m still pretty new on this job. The last person who messed up the computer was fired. I have direct instructions from my boss Peter Brown to refer any computer problems to him. His phone number is: 01279777169 (This is an actual person who requested on his YouTube exposing these scammers to give out his number to catch these guys)

Scammer: Is your boss there? I’m sure he would be glad you fixed this problem. All you have to do is type….

Jamie: Oh no, Mr. Brown is not here, his office is at another location. If I do something wrong I will lose this job and will then be homeless. You sound like such an honest man; I know you would not want me to get into trouble. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you telling me of the computer problems here. Please call Peter Brown at 01279777169 and he will take care of everything. Thank you so much and please call Peter right away so we can get this problem cleaned up.

I could hear this guy muttering as I hung up. I have had Peter Browns information on a sticky note on the computer desk for months. Finally I had a chance to use it!

The way this scam works is when you go to the site “letmein” and enter in the code they give you, you are giving up control of your computer. These crooks can then steal all kinds of information and then download malware to boot. If you ever get such a call NEVER gi

ve them ANY information.

I found this on the “Youtubes” can’t wait to try it out the next time Rachel calls me from the credit card scam!!