Windows 8 online scam

Peterr

Fantastic Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Location
MD USA
A company called Acadia Global is still trying to tell poeople that their pcs are getting infected and they can fix it for a price. It is a known scam dating back to at least 12/12.
Go to the FBI at www.ic3.gov and report it if it hapens to you. Do not give any money or information.
 
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There are many of them and I'd be sorry to lose these characters - they give me much pleasure in granting them half an hour or more to talk a load of rubbish to me, during which I ask innocent sounding naive questions etc and chuckle quietly to myself at their amusing replies. Then, when I express concern about their request that I download and install remote control software for them to gain complete control of my pc so that they can solve my problems I am transferred to one of their other staff. He in turn seeks to reassure me of their validity and expertise being a "fully qualified" Microsoft Certified professional. I then ask him if that is anything like being an MVP which I am and within a few seconds the call is disconnected! What joy!!

Seriously though - thanks for the prompt - it may help others blissfully unaware of this scam to avoid being taken to the cleaners.
 
Yes, Pat, I felt creepy just talking with him. I had to discern whether it was bogus or if MS/Dell wanted something from me.

I posted it as a lot of people read these threads and they will have a heads up.

Talking them for a ride must be fun - that is for next time.
 
Just a quick heads up to RFID which is radio frequency ID and is a chip on many credit cards, You can ask to have it removed but it is going to be on all cards soon. You only have to touch a pad to a pocketbook for example and the data is transferred. Then swiping it into a credit card creator you can make a credit card out of your library card for example.
They are selling sleeves but aluminum foil around the credit cards does the trick.
 
I don't use credit cards, but I just checked my ATM and debit cards, and as far as I can tell, none have RFIDs. However, the debit card has a curious foil square on the back side of the card to the left of the signature block. It doesn't look like any of the RFID cards I found on Google, but is it?
 
Do the same if you receive a call & the person on the line tells you they are from Microsoft & have detected problems in your system.

Either FBI -- or do what I did.... I told the guy I knew nothing about computers, then handed the phone to my 15 & 19 yr-olds who led the guy on by pretending to do his "fixes" for 30 min.

:0
 
They never stop. I just got one from GADS1 404-891-5588.
The person on the phone said he worked for Microsoft (but he could not give me a valid Microsoft ID number)that my computer was sending important errors to the Microsoft Windows Server. I decided to see how far he would go. He had me (I'm running Windows 8.1) start the 'event viewer". Click on the 'Windows Logs' node to expand it. He had me right click on items in the 'Security", 'System', and 'Application' node and look for a 'Delete' item in the context menu. When I told him there was no 'Delete' item in the context menu he said that because mu computer was infected by a virus and he was going to transfer me to is supervisor. AT that time I Terminated the phone call.
 
The internet is a playground for all kinds of scams. You just have to use common sense and always be on the alert. Unfortunately there are too many people that are not sufficiently critical. And those are easy pray for those guys.
 
I should have stated that I knew it was a scam after he spoke a few words. I asked him what is Microsoft ID was and he gave me a few letters and numbers. I told him that was the wrong format. He asked what the corrected format was. I didn't answer his question. I wanted to see how far he would go.
 
A company called Acadia Global is still trying to tell poeople that their pcs are getting infected and they can fix it for a price. It is a known scam dating back to at least 12/12.
Go to the FBI at www.ic3.gov and report it if it hapens to you. Do not give any money or information.
We get the same idiots calling us in the UK and much like Pat I always have some fun with them before giving them a blast. What does anger me more so though is when I get a phone call off my 70+yr old mother asking if these guy's are legit. It's ok (well it isn't but you know what I mean) when they phone guy's like us because we know the score but hassling my dear old mom ( or anyone else's mother or father ) is a step too far.
 
I guess they don't really know who is at the end of the line. They probably don't even know whether that person has a PC. They just go fishing.

I am a 76 year old grandfather myself and would love to have some fun with those guys. They could help me with my Linux. But they never seem to call me.
 
I always ask them the question, 'If my pc is sending you messages what operating system am I using?'. They always answer with XP..... (I use 8.1.1)
 
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