Scam caller may have remote access to computer

[kita1]

A friend of mine (not very computer literate) has just had a caller from India on the phone saying his computer had crashed etc.

He spent an hour on the phone and although he says he did not tell the caller anything, he did switch his computer on (don't know what he did on it though).

IF this caller has managed to persuade him to visit web sites or type anything in and IF he has managed to gain remote access to the computer how would you stop it?

[starone]

I'm not very computer literate, but I know enough not to believe anyone who starts telling me things like that. In fact I don't give cold callers a chance to say anything. I cut them off in mid word, not even mid sentence. There is such a lot of precedence for this sort of thing it makes you wonder how anyone can possibly get caught. Don't know what happens when you do though, unfortunately.

[treetops1]

Read this and see if it helps, hope he didnt have on line banking.
http://www.theanswerb...k/Question991188.html

[Barmaid]

First thing you do is disconnect THAT particular machine from the internet.

[kita1]

He doesn't do any online banking (doesn't even pay anything by card or have a credit card) or have much information on his computer, he only got the computer a short time ago and is still very much learning about it. He only e mails about two or three people (I am one).

I just wondered if I could stop any further remote access - if indeed he has enabled it.

Seemingly the guy kept telling him he owed them money (he is of the older generation where you are polite to callers). Thankfully he just kept saying he did not owe anyone any money.

These scammers can seem so plausible to older people, especially ones who don't know much about computers.

[ubasses]

I think he has got one of the companies that log into his computer, then tell him they solved all problems on it then ask for credit card number in payment. They then take the payment from his account of agreed sum. Nothing further happens. Sounds like they struck unlucky with him as he did not have any cards. My husband had just done a lot of work on one of his customers computers, setting up a second profile to stop her having to spend a lot a money and when she got caught they completely mucked it up by removing new profile and when he looked through the history all the errors they were supposed to have corrected they were of no significance at all. Of course they took the fee from her account, the Bank could not stop it as she had authorised it.

[SlackAlice]

If I were you I'd take a look at the link treetops1 gave and follow that.
The only other thing I can suggest is to turn off 'Remote Assistance' on his pc.

Assuming Windows 7 click Start button and type 'system' in the search box, it will give you various results, but click on the system result under Control Panel. This will open a new window, on the left, click on 'Advanced system settings'. On the next window select the 'Remote' tab, take the tick out of 'Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer' click apply and OK


This type of scam is quite common and doesn't always come from India, I've had them myself and I normally lead them a merry dance then tell them I build pc's for a hobby and know what I'm doing. They hang up then.....

[hafeezazhar]

Read this and see if it helps, hope he didnt have on line banking.

<a href="http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ChatterB
ank/Question991188.html"
title="Link to www.theanswerbank.co.uk provided by user" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.theanswerb...k/Ques
tion991188.html</a>
</div>

[factor-fiction]

Here is the link the above poster referred to
http://www.theanswerb...k/Question991188.html

[Maydup]

Thank you for that simple tip slackalice. I'd never knowingly allow anyone access but I feel much safer with the remote access closed.

[bibblebub]

hafeezazhar - just copy the url (including http:) into the answer text box:

http://www.theanswerb...k/Question991188.html