Aggressive Social Engineering Against Consumers
Cyber criminals are getting aggressive with their social engineering tactics.
Val Christopherson said she received a telephone call last Tuesday from a man stating he was with an online security company who was receiving error messages from the computer at her Charleswood home.
“He said he wanted to fix my problem over the phone,” Christopherson said.
She said she was then convinced to go online to a remote access and support website called Teamviewer.com and allow him to connect her computer to his company’s system.
“That was my big mistake,” Christopherson said.
She said the scammers then tried to sell her anti-virus software they would install.
At that point, the 61-year-old Anglican minister became suspicious and eventually broke off the call before unplugging her computer.
Christopherson said she then had to hang up on the same scam artist again, after he quickly called back claiming to be the previous caller’s manager.
Chris • May 30, 2011 7:47 AM
I get one or two of these calls a month, offering to fix my Windows computer.
But it is amazing that even the poor scaling of a phone scam by a real person can pay off. The economics are astounding.