By Charles Miller
It has happened again! I fear it may happen all over again to some of you readers if you fail to read this word of warning through to the end.
I received an urgent phone call from a client who wisely realized he had just been conned. While I may not know all the exact details of what transpired, I have seen this happen so many times that I can presume to opine.
My client had apparently received a “phishing” email with a fake warning that his Facebook account had been hacked. He then went on the internet to search for the phone number for customer support at Facebook. (Hint: Facebook does not provide customer support by phone.) Of course that does not stop Google and other internet search engines from returning results that list phone numbers from scam web sites purporting to be genuine customer service at Facebook. He apparently found one of these fakes and dialed the number.
What ended up happening is that the phony Facebook tech convinced my friend to give remote control of his computer to the crook, ostensibly to fix the hacking problem, but in reality so the bad character could perpetrate a hacking.
If you ever need to call a vendor, use the phone number printed on your bill or invoice. If you need to call your bank, only dial the number printed on the back of your credit card. Do NOT go to Google and search for a number because there is a chance the phone number you find will be a fake. In defense of Google I must point out it does work hard to remove fraudulent numbers from its search results, but simply cannot do so faster than the cyber crooks put up new ones.
So what to do if you absolutely have no way to find a phone number other than to go searching for one online? Here is a suggestion: If you have found what you believe to be the phone number for technical support at Facebook, call that number and ask “Is this customer service at Chase Bank?”
Speaking in a foreign accent the person on the other end might answer: “What? Oh, yes this is Chase Bank. Can I know your customer login, password, Social Security Number, date of birth, and…” You see, from halfway around the world these shameless cyber crooks have telephone boiler rooms out of which they run hundreds of different scams and often using the same phone number.
The final thing to remember is that many successful thefts are perpetrated when some trusting person gives over remote control of their computer to the thieves. When asked to do this or type anything on your computer you should say “I’ll need to call you back when my computer tech can be here because he/she will understand what you are doing.” Of course the thief will insist the problem is so urgent it cannot wait. You could hang up at this point, but if you do that do not be surprised if they call you back.
If you do make the mistake of allowing some cyber crooks access to your computer, you should turn off that computer and your internet, and leave them off until everything can be checked out by a qualified computer tech you trust.
Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8@SMAguru.com.
