Hello? This is Microsoft calling......or is it a SCAM?

I'm fed up. Time and time again hearing about innocent people falling for scams which cost them thousands of pounds and a lot of emotional distress.

These online scams are designed to prey on the young and the old although with far greater success on the elderly, mainly due to their lack of knowledge on how computers/email functions.

I'm writing this article to hopefully get a little traction, and maybe someone who could have previously fallen for this, will now know a little better. It only takes one person for this to be worth it.

The amount of money these scammers are making is so vast that there are huge criminal organisations popping up all over the world with a large number of these based out of India (Although I hasten to add this isn't the only location). The cost of creating the contact centre is relatively cheap, and an operation can be live very quickly.

There are two very popular scams currently doing the rounds, and I will explain them here. The scenarios and stories always change slightly but most of them follow the same sort of script.

1. The Refund Scam

The refund scam usually works by the scammers reaching out to their victims using a calling list. These calling lists have usually been purchased on the internet, and sometimes are a list of previously scammed victims (the easy list).

The scammer will call using a CLI (calling line identifier) which will be either from the victims area or a mobile code for their country (079 for the UK for example). This is designed to put the victim at ease, and also increases the likelihood that they will answer the telephone.

The scammer then proceeds to tell their victim, "Congratulations, you are due a refund by Amazon/Microsoft/eBay of £500!"

The victim enquires on how to receive their refund. This involves them opening up their home computer and accepting this inbound connection to allow the scammer to control their PC in order to "conduct the wire transfer".

Once connected to the PC, they get their victim to log into their personal banking, take a note of the balances on the screen, then run a simple script on the computer which pops up questions like:

1. Account name
2. Account Number
3. Sort Code
4. Amount to transfer

They ask the victim to fill in these fields one by one (it does nothing it's all part of the act). Then when the get to the amount to transfer (£500), the scammer taps an extra 0 at the end, meaning the amount submitted is £5000 instead of the refund amount of £500.

The scammer then highlights the mistake to the victim, feigning shock, and fear of 'losing their job' over the loss of so much money, playing on the victims feelings.

The next step, is to 'prove' the money has gone into the victims account. Remember the victim logged into their personal banking earlier? Well the scammer pushes a blank screen on to the victims computer while they are not looking, changes the HTML of their banking screen making it look like they actually do have an extra £5000 sitting in their bank account.

Its not true, and a simple refresh of the page will show the real amount.

The rest of this scam is mainly about the scammer asking for gift card numbers totaling the additional amount as 'return payment' or in some cases asking the victim to post cash playing on the honesty of their victims, who truly believe they have this extra money in their account.

2. The Technical Support Scam

The scam works by utilising preprogrammed adware/malware which, when a PC is infected will display a message like:

This can even be a website redirect, with some script in place stopping the user from closing the popup. Simply force closing the browser from the task manager will stop this message from popping up.

This warning is effective because it states that "Your personal financial information IS NOT SAFE". Its designed to instill fear into the user, suggesting that 'hackers' have managed to gain access to their machine.

Well they haven't. Not yet anyway.

The warning also contains a tech support number to call which will look like a local/regional number but it's likely to route to a call centre very far away. Its easy to purchase a CLI/telephone number which will make it look like you are somewhere in the world that you are not.

When you call the number, this is where the real scam begins.

The scammers usually answer the telephone as 'Microsoft Technical Support, how can I help you?" giving the caller confidence that they are speaking with a reputable company and not being tricked.

The "support engineer" then listens to the problem and asks the caller to establish a remote connection for them on their machine. Now they have control.

They show some of the standard Microsoft event viewer logs highlighting the 'errors' which are quite normal to see in there, and suggesting this is evidence that they have been hacked.

I have even seen some instances where the scammer has taken files from the machine precious to the victim such as pictures and videos of memories, just to show "Look they are taking your files right now"

All of this leads up to the scammer placing an invoice on the desktop of the PC to be paid by the victim, for 'support services rendered' to the tune of hundreds if not thousands of pounds, which will need to be paid before work is conducted to 'fix'.

Obviously as there is no virus, and the victim hasn't been hacked, they just clean up the PC a little and make it look like they are doing something to justify the large amount of money spent.

They also usually leave a back door into the PC, as scammed once, means it's likely the victim will fall for a similar trick in the future.

Can't we just report them to the police?

Well obviously we should report all of these scammers. We have their telephone numbers, sometimes they give their bank details for payments. We should be able to track them down using this information, right?

Its not actually that simple. Its very hard to trace these people, and it's quite easy to close up shop and reopen under a different name. Some online internet detectives such as Jim Browning and Kitboga have had some success in tracing some of these online hackers, but the next hurdle is getting the authorities to take notice.

Jim Browning also famously managed to get access to the webcams in one of these contact centres, showing just how many people get scammed, and how large the operation is.

Image courtesy of Jim Browning's Youtube channel: Jim Browning

What can I do to avoid getting scammed?

The best advice I can offer anyone is:

Think before you click

The email attachment you were about to open - Were you expecting it? The file download of the latest song from your favourite artist - is it from a reputable website?

When your browser warns you that this site is unsafe - its wise to not continue your clicks. Close the browser. Look for the little padlock on your browser address bar - it tells you the site is secure.

Finally, I recommend you scan your PC with Malwarebytes free malware scan. They have a free trial. You can always uninstall it after the scan has given you the green light. I'm not being endorsed by Malwarebytes, I simply believe this is a great free tool to give piece of mind. If the scan comes back and your machine is riddled, I suggest you seek some local advice from your local PC repair place. They can run cleanups and even reinstall if its that bad (Believe me, I've seen some horror show PC's. I'm talking to you Dad!).

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As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my article, I always write about subjects that are near and dear to my heart. The inspiration for this article was from Christopher Johnson, a former colleague whom I have always respected and admired. You can find his article here.