7 responses to “Windows Event Viewer scam”

1. 

   Randall October 29th, 2011 at 08:51

   Interesting article – and clear how many people could fall for the scam.

   Note on my XP machine, the sequence to start Event Manager was different:
   - Control Panel
   - Administrative Tools
   - Computer Management
   - Then select Event Manager under System Tools

   That showed me 3 types of events
   - Application
   - Security
   - System

   Clicking on those types then displayed the individual events, and double-clicking the event showed more details.

   Exactly as Woodie said, most of it is geek-stuff, but I could see how it might help in troubleshooting once in a while.

2. 

   Tom R. October 30th, 2011 at 17:42

   Okay, it’s bad, but why exactly is it bad? Is the scammer trying merely to sucker you out of money, or is he also turning your computer into a spambot? If he can copy files off your computer, what files does he copy, and what can he do with those files?

3. 

   rc primak November 2nd, 2011 at 00:19

   @TomR. –

   Read the Windows Secrets story. Then follow the links into The lounge. There are at least two threads showing just how clever and dastardly these scammers are. They seem to make their first call armed with an awful lot of very intimate knowledge about the people they are calling and their computers. And no one seems to know how the scammers have gotten their hands on private and technical details about their victims in the first place.

   Think about what you use your computers for every day. Banking? Sending and receiving emails? Logging into online accounts? All of these types of information, plus any information you use to fill out online forms and purchases, plus a whole lot more — all is available to someone who has conned you into installing Remote Assist tools onto your PC.

   Even worse, Remote Assist allows the intruder to do anything you could do as Administrator sitting at your own keyboard. And they can lock you out, preventing you from ending the session.

   This is partly Microsoft’s fault for allowing Remote assist such sweeping powers in the first place, and for allowing anyone to download and run Remote Assist software, regardless of whether or not people have a legitimate need for the software.

   Only licensed technicians should ever be allowed to set up Remote Assist on Windows PCs. But try telling that to a company (Microsoft) which cannot even control who issues SSL security certificates.

   Yes, this is a serious and (apparently) widespread threat. And most users are sitting ducks for it, as most of us have Windows Error Reporting enabled on our computers. And yet, we do not even have the common sense to realize that Microsoft never initiates a tech support call — NEVER. We have to call Microsoft first — ALWAYS!

4. 

   Alan Dee November 5th, 2011 at 05:48

   ALL incoming calls to my house go through my telephone/answering machine. Few telemarketers bother to leave a message, let alone a scammer messing with me. My local police department says not to give any personal info out via the telephone unless initiated by me like to L.L.Bean. I only use one credit card online and it is not affiliated with my local bank. In eleven years of doing the Internet, this credit card has been compromised once.

   As to passwords? None are stored on my machine.

   I run Norton 360.

5. 

   Davis Newman December 30th, 2011 at 11:49

   12/29/2011
   I just got a phone call from someone pretending to be from Microsoft tech support, and He said “your P.C. has a virus” It’s been sending error messages to our server. I had read about this on Windows Secrets and knew he was a fraud. (This is a well known scam) He had Indian accent and his phone number was. (000) 000-0000 with no ID according to my Vonage calls log. He first wanted me to check the “Bottom left corner of the screen for the Start Button” Well I have the Task Bar docked on the right side….so….the Start Button is top right, not bottom left. But I looked bottom left and told him there was no “Start” button there. When he asked what was there I said “items: 15, unread:12″ which confused him to no end. We repeated this for several rounds because he did not understand that I had Outlook open and that message was for my inbox. After 5 min or so I got tired of fooling with him and said I had replaced Windows with the Linux operating system, at which point he said he could not “Help” me and hung up. ALL KIDDING ASIDE, This is a scam NEVER give personal information or passwords to anyone whether by email or phone call.

6. 

   woody January 3rd, 2012 at 21:11

   @Davis -

   HA! Brilliant!

7. 

   Jason March 2nd, 2012 at 06:47

   I got call from them today again but this time on my cell phone. last time they called me in summer 2010 on my home phone.
   Don’t go logmein123.com i got call from 1858301014
   i searched it up came on the suspicous list and bunch of other lists.
   HAHAHH played with 5 guys for aobut 38 min 43sec