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Beverly King on Briercliff Lane received a phone call from a
stranger recently. She said the man, who spoke with a heavy Indian accent,
informed her of a virus infection in her computer but he was ready to fix the
problem.
He told me his name was John Anderson and that he worked for
Microsoft,” King said. “I didn’t believe that for a minute, but he was very
insistent and almost demanded that I turn on my computer so I could see what he
was saying. He got upset when I wouldn’t do it.”
King said it obvious to her the whole thing was a scam. She
knew already that Microsoft
“never makes cold calls about computers.” She was right. Microsoft states
repeatedly and in many separate sources that they never call people about their
computers.
Other Albany residents have reported receiving similar
calls.
Almost certainly, King was the intended victim of an
international “boiler room” scam originating in India. According to consumer
information issued by the Federal Trade Commission, tens of thousands of people
have been convinced to pay for needless “fixes” for malware or virus
infections.
This is how it works, says the FTC: Organized scammers scan
English-speaking phone books for likely victims. After getting their prospects
to the phone, the scammers first claim they’ve detected malware on the
prospects’ computers.
Then, according to an October 2012 article in “theguardian,”
victims are directed to a program in their computer called “Event Viewer,” a
standard part of the Windows operating system. That program displays logs of
events occurring on the computer, sometimes with the label of “Warning” or
“Error” which in fact have no significance to infection or the smooth running
of the computer.
For many casual computer users, though, it’s convincing
evidence. Victims are impressed enough to fork out $300 or more for a computer
cleanup service they never needed.
He claimed he was in San Antonio Texas,” King said of her
mysterious caller. “But the caller ID showed a California prefix.”
King told the scammer to take a hike — exactly the right
response, officials say. In fact the FTC has been cracking down on the criminal
operations, which are not only in the U.S, but also the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand, simply because their targets are English-speaking.
According to “theguardian” article, a federal district judge
froze the U.S. assets of 17 people and 14 companies that have been accused of
taking part in the scam operations. The FTC has also shut down 80 Internet
domain names and 130 phone numbers used in the US to conduct the scams.
In some cases, the article stated, the scammers provided
antivirus software from reputable companies and installed new copies of Windows
on the targeted computers. That allowed Microsoft to use the license keys for
the purpose of tracing the software back to its buyers, thus aiding the
investigation.
Theguardian article stated that some scammers have been
charged with violating the FTC Act, which bars “unfair and deceptive”
commercial practices, breaching the Telemarketing Sales Rule and illegally
calling numbers that are on the National Do Not Call Registry.
The Albany Police Department has been notified of the
emergence of virus scammers locally and are researching reports of the
activity. Phyllis Banks, spokeswoman for the APD stressed the importance of
reporting any suspected scam activity.
It’s important to have an accurate idea of what the problem
is,” Banks said, “so we can issue appropriate warnings to the public.”
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