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Phil’s Ramblings
Another of our members has just
been the target of a “Microsoft Sup-
port” scam. As you may remember, a
similar event happened to another
LCACE member about a year or so
ago. In that case, she paid the scam-
mers on her first contact for their “help”, but
stone-walled them on a subsequent follow-up
call. In the most recent case, our member did
call the supposed “Microsoft Support” phone
number but thought better of it after a brief
conversation with the scammer and hung up.
In each case a warning claiming to be from Mi-
crosoft popped-up on the target’s screen, with
an alert that one or more viruses had been de-
tected on their computer. The warning urged
the intended victim to call a toll-free number for
assistance in removing the virus. In at least
the latest case, the warning contained an ad-
monition against re-starting the computer.
If the victim does respond to the warning and
phones the toll-free number, he or she will like-
ly be assured that the person on the other end
is “Microsoft-certified” (stopping short of claim-
ing to be an actual Microsoft employee). What
typically happens next is an offer to “fix” the
problem for a fee. As I recall from the first epi-
sode, the fee was not outrageous and, nervous
about the pop-up warning and the further tele-
phone warnings, the victim agreed to the pay-
ment. There was some subsequent computer
activity that made our member believe that cor-
rective steps were being taken by the scam-
mer and the pop-up warning went away. After
the subsequent follow-up call our member took
her computer to Staples or OfficeMax, and was
told that there was nothing wrong with her
computer.
After hanging up on her first call, our second
member scanned her computer with Malware-
bytes (finding nothing) and Avast (which did
find something, and removed it). She also did
a boot scan, with negative results.
3
So, it appears in both cases that there was no
significant malware on their computers; only
the worrying pop-up message.
We talked about this type of scam at an LCA-
CE meeting late last year or early this year,
after several of us attended a computer secu-
rity presentation at Cook Library. In general,
Microsoft will not post a pop-up security warn-
ing on your computer screen. If you do see
such a warning here are some things to try:
1. Post your warning as an online search
query; read the responses that come
up for a better idea about what is going
on.
2. Scan your computer with your installed
anti-virus software and/or access Mal-
warebytes or other security software
sites for a free download / scan.
3. If you are satisfied that this is a scam,
re-start your computer to get rid of the
pop-up and move on. If the pop-up
blocks you from re-starting your com-
puter, simply hold down the “Power”
key on your computer to turn it off.
Then start it again and move on.
4. If you are still uncertain after steps 1.
and 2. you can phone a knowledgea-
ble friend for advice, post a query to
fellow LCACE members through our
Google Groups email or take your
computer to a nearby Staples, Office-
Max or Office Depot store for a free
PC check-up and their assistance / as-
surance.
On a different topic, both Microsoft and Apple
have launched new laptop PCs in recent
months. While they received positive re-
views, I just ran across an online column dis-
cussing the hardware strategies involved.
The writer pointed out that in the Windows
world competition among the many PC ven-
dors has turned the average PC into a com-
modity, thus keeping margins low (and bene-