“Stains of deceitfulness”

[Jazzy]

Sitting in front of her PC, the phone in her hand connected to a tech support company half a world away, Sheryl Novick was about to get scammed.

The company she had reached, PCCare247, was based in India but had built a lucrative business advertising over the Internet to Americans, encouraging them to call for tech support. After glimpsing something odd on her computer, Novick did so.

“I saw some sort of pop-up and I don’t know if there’s a problem,” she told a PCCare247 tech named Yakeen. He offered to check the “management part” of her computer for possible problems.

“This is very, very important part of the computer and it work like the human brain, all the major decision, all the action, all the result is taken by this management part,” Yakeen said in a strong accent relayed over a poor-quality phone line that sometimes made comprehension difficult. All he needed to run his test was total control of Novick's Windows computer.

She agreed, downloading and installing a remote access tool. When it was in place, Yakeen reached out through the Internet, took control of Novick’s mouse cursor, and opened a program called Event Viewer. The scam was about to begin.

Scary and I can see how some people would fall for this.

Would you have done what he was telling her to do?

 

[gaze-universe]

No. I don't like the idea of remote control and unknown person in the same sentence.

 

[Jazzy]

No way I would have done what she did. I would just call my local PC Tech person for his advice.