Odd phone call today.

I had a strange call today. OH was out so I had to take it.

The caller called me by name and said My IP address was showing red meaning my computer was downloading cr*p basically. I was a bit alarmed but because he had my name and telephone number I listened for a moment. He made it all sound like I was in trouble and said he would talk me through what to do.

At this point I politely told him no and said my son worked in computers and he would check it for me.
I guess he was trying to sell me some sort of protection? I am heartily sick of these people trying to gain our trust
Has anyone else experienced this?

 

Glad you did the right thing Jazmine

 

Jazmine - yes its another scam. They have no idea even if you have a computer. I am waiting for a call like that, and I am going to tell him how clever he is and how useful his advice is. And after 10 minutes of wasting his time, I will tell him that I don't have a computer - does that mean I should go out and buy one.

Armandii - I have had a couple of bits of malware that my anti-virus hasn't managed to deal with. Tell your neighbour to Google the name of the virus, and look at several sites to rule out the owners of the virus wanting to charge you. The best advice is usually on forums as they aren't trying to sell anything. There is loads of freeware out there that can deal with these things - but they are specific and you need the right one.

Having got a possible tracking cookie that kept reinstalling itself. I removed all my cookies, and then set my options to request permission every time to save a cookie. I am absolutely appauled at how many third party cookies try to get onto your machine - even from supposedly reputable sites.

 

Those viruses that Armandii mentioned are a real nightmare.

They generally work in a very clever yet simple way to circumvent your antivirus software. Often they attack your computer in two ways.

1. They change your internet browser settings so that the browser will always download the virus no matter what you do.

2. The virus its self does the aggro, changing advanced settings that make it very difficult to use the machine, and then hassling you.

Antivirus programs spot the virus and remove it, but because it has already changed your web settings it just keeps coming back.

Often these nasty programs even prevent you downloading or running anything else, including tools to eradicate them.

But there is a way (there is always a way), and it is quite easy if you know how.

First up, ask a friend to download a program called Process Explorer. Make sure it is the genuine microsoft one from here:

Process Explorer

.... and Microsoft Security Essentials from here:

Download details: Microsoft Security Essentials

Get your friend to put these two programs on a CD.

Put them on your computer, Process Explorer first.

Process Explorer shows you everything that's running on your machine, including stuff that would normally be hidden. The fiddly bit is looking down the list for something that doesn't seem right (eg is not published by a reputable company). When you spot the suspect, you can select it and 'kill' it. It only stops the process, it doesn't delete or update anything, so if you get it wrong, worst case you just have to restart your computer and start again.

Once you've stopped the offending process, then you can run Microsoft Security Essentials which will quickly find the malicious code and quarantine it.

9 times out of 10, then will get even the toughest viruses.

 

You can stop at least 95 per cent of these cold callers. In the help pages of your telephone book there should be a website address or telephone number that you can contact to stop this. I filled in an on-line form three years ago and it's made a huge difference, I'm also ex-directory, which stops people from just scanning down the pages and calling. Both these are free of charge. Give it a try.

 

Armandii - That was the one that I had. I have AVG, which didn't stop it. So I Googled it and I used Malwarebytes which did sort it out.

Using the "Telephone Preference Service", as Sheal says, will stop 95% of nuisance calls. But those are the telesales, who generally try to stay within the law. The call Jasmine has was from crooks and they couldn't care less about the TPS.

 

I got rid of AVG a couple of years ago as it let in a virus.

I've used Avast since, with no problems. (Touch wood.)

 

We're also ex-directory which does stop some unsolicited calls, unfortunately however, many of them are just made by computer programmed to dial every number between say 111111 and 222222 in a particular STD code area. Many of the numbers these machines try may not exist, but the minute it receives a ringing tone it 'knows' there's a connected phone line so, even if you don't answer, it will often try again - that's why, when you (or your answerphone) picks up the receiver, there's that split-second pause before either their pre-recorded message kicks in or there's a 'human' on the other end trying to sell you summat.

 

Those types of dialers are illegal now, although I'm sure they are still used.

Another way your number gets out is because companies you give it to, often sell it on to list brokers, who then sell it to anyone else that want's it. That too is illegal unless you give the original company permission to pass it on (the old 'tick this box if you don't not want us to not sell your soul to others' tick box, which most people either ignore, get confused by, don't even see because its so well tucked away, or where the company just ignores what you said because it is so hard to trace the leak back).

 

I used to use TPS when we lived in the UK. Now I'm in Belgium, so there is no such scheme (that I know of, anyway).

However, as has been said, there's always a way. We got our phone number when living in Brussels (French-speaking area), then moved to Vlams-Brabant (Flemish-speaking area). All the cold-calls are from French-speaking call centres. When they phone to sell me case-loads of wine, etc, I just ask them to speak Dutch to me.... So far (in over 5 years!) only one caller has been able to continue the cold-call in Dutch - the rest hang up!