If you answered your phone and it was Microsoft, telling you that your computer had a problem and they could fix it, should you believe them? What if they said they were your internet provider or an aniti virus software company? Unfortunately this telephone scam leads innocent computer users to hand over their credit card details and allows an unknown person full remote access to their computer.

The caller pretends to be from some reputable internet provider or Microsoft itself, telling the victim they are following up on a report of a computer problem or virus infection that has been detected on their computer. They then direct the victim to visit a website to install software that allows the scammers full remote control of the computer. Then, they spend some time opening log files and other system areas to show where the problems are and convince you to pay a subscription fee for them to fix everything.
 

They now have your credit card details and full access to your computer and all of your personal information.

Computer Troubleshooters companies worldwide have seen a recent increase in this alarming scam, especially in the USA, the UK and Australia. Law enforcement agencies, Microsoft and other major technology companies have issued press releases warning of these calls. Stuart Strathdee, Microsoft Australia’s chief security adviser says “Do not be fooled. Microsoft is not cold calling consumers in regards to malfunctioning PCs, viruses or any other matter.”

In reality, Microsoft, your internet provider and other third-party companies do not have access to see any errors on your computer. They also can’t match your computer to your home telephone number.

If you or someone you know has fallen victim to this scam, call your local PC Troubleshooter. We can thoroughly investigate your computer and remove all traces of their remote control software, to give you peace of mind that they can no longer access your system. You may also want to consider calling your credit card company. Have them change your account number and your on-line access password and begin watching for erroneous charges.

To combat these spammers, the best thing you can do is to spread the word to your friends, family and colleagues to never give an unknown person remote access to their computer. If you receive a call of this nature, simply hang up on them. Develop a trusted relationship with your local Computer Troubleshooter. They can use secure software tools to remotely monitor your computer for problems and give you the best advice on how to address them.

If you were looking to employ someone, you’d carefully check their reputation and their references. Email providers are now becoming just as cautious about who they accept emails from, in an effort to prevent large volumes of unsolicited commercial email (spam) from moving through their servers. They’re turning to ‘blacklist’ services, to see if you’ve developed a reputation for being a known source of spam. This month we look at blacklisting and how it can put a halt to your legitimate business emails.

There are numerous blacklisting services on the internet, which use various methods to build up a list of known spam sources. One such method is a ‘honeypot’ - pretending to be an unsecure email system, which attracts spammers and spamming software. The blacklisting server then adds the internet IP address of where the spam came from, to the blacklist. Email providers check this blacklist before accepting email and if the sender’s server is on that list, their email may be rejected before the recipients even see it. This is different to spam filtering which actually checks the contents of the email itself.

Unfortunately, your own business can become blacklisted if one of your computers picks up a spamming software ‘bot’ or malware. Like a virus, this malicious software installs itself onto your machine and starts sending out spam emails through your internet connection, however it may not be detected by your anti-virus software. You can very quickly become identified as a spam source and blacklisted, which will prevent legitimate emails from being sent from your own local email server.

The first indications of blacklisting are usually email failure error messages when you try and send a message. They commonly refer to rejecting your email for ‘policy reasons’ and may or may not mention spam or blacklisting. Email addresses that you’ve previously communicated with successfully may now start to reject your messages.

To tackle this, the first step is to confirm which blacklisting services you appear in. Some services even provide a link in the email failure message with further information on why you were blacklisted, when it happened or the possible cause. The infected computer then needs to be identified, removed from your network and thoroughly cleaned. Your email server should also have its configuration checked to ensure it’s not an ‘open’ relay, allowing emails to pass through it which did not come from you and are not destined for you. Once you’re sure your network is completely clean, you can ask to be ‘delisted’ from the services you’ve been appearing in. Some services will action your delisting request as soon as they receive it, whereas some will take days or weeks and some services even request a payment to speed up the process for you. The key to successful delisting is to make sure your computers are completely clean first. If you make multiple requests to be delisted and you’re still generating spam, the services will start to ignore your requests and you’ll remain on the blacklists.

Of course, a better option is to prevent spamming malware from entering your network in the first place, so always be cautious about what you download from the internet, what email attachments you open and what website links you click.