Monday, September 30, 2013

Phishing for $$: "Hi, we're the Windows support team!"

Got an interesting phone call today from somebody named "Ricky" who claimed he was with the "Windows support team." The number displayed on my caller ID was 1-333-260-2212. When I asked him if he was an employee of Microsoft he said "We support Microsoft who made your Windows computer." I asked him to give me a call-back number for security purposes, and he gave me 1-888-514-1650. When I then asked him which operating system was in question, he said "All of them." I then informed him that I do not run any Windows computers and terminated the call. I googled the 888 number and got a whole page of complaints about their scam.

I tried to get Ricky to spell his last name for me, but his Indian accent was so pronounced that I gave up. The closest thing I could get was "Vhdl."

Too bad I couldn't leave a voice message on the 888 number, which I'm sure would have been monitored by the NSA (they don't have a leave-a-message option). Something implying the specifics of a terrorist plot. Trouble is, I wouldn't want my phone traced. But hey, if I went to an off-brand smartphone store, I could make such a call on one of their demo units. I could press "1" for customer support, ask for Mohammed, and then start a terrorist rant.

Nah, that would be wrong. Wouldn't it?

1 comment:

  1. Wrong, indeed. But thanks for the heads up! I Googled the phone numbers you shared in the article and both of them came up at Callercenter along with several complaints associating the phone numbers to scam calls. I wonder if the authorities can go after these scammers using the complaint as a basis.

    ReplyDelete

Implementation suggestions for THE MORGAN DOCTRINE are most welcome. What are the "Got'chas!"? What questions would some future Cyber Privateering Czar have to answer about this in a Senate confirmation hearing?