How to tackle online fraudsets, by Wisbech computer expert
In the fortnightly I.T Crowd column, Philip Brooks, of Wisbech's Diamond Byte Solutions, discusses online attacks (all blogs can be found at diamondbyte.co.uk/blog/)...
This week we have come across a nasty little trick on the web. Whilst a customer was clicking through a nonsense click bait story on the internet, a big screen popped up telling them that his Mcafee antivirus had expired and that he had hundreds of viruses on his PC.
The message on the pop up told him to phone the number provided on the pop up message for a “premium rate support site”.
During the call, he was asked to give the “remote support” person on the phone access to his PC as well as his credit card details and was then subsequently advised that unfortunately the credit card information wasn’t accepted, so could he please provide them with a different card number (by which point the scammers were happily buying untraceable BitCoins using both cards just provided to them).
Finally, to add insult to major financial injury, the gentleman was directed to a third fake website where he was asked to type in more card details and have some (unbeknownst to him) toxic software installed on his PC for the privilege.
So, what do you do if you receive a pop-up message telling you to renew your anti-virus. Call a help line or be invited for remote support to help resolve the “issue”?
Basically – don’t do it. Any pop-up messages that appear whilst you are on the internet should immediately arouse suspicion.
If it does happen, you immediately need to force your browser to shut down. To do this, press CTRL-ALT-DELETE (all at the same time), which will open Task Manager.
From here, select your web browser (which will be Edge, Chrome or Firefox) and click the End Task button. This will kill the fraudsters’ web page. Once you have done this, you can reopen your web browser BUT DO NOT TRY TO RESTORE THE PREVIOUS SESSION.
How do you prevent it from happening in the first place? Firstly, make sure your web browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox) is up to date.
Secondly, make sure your computer has all the available updates from Microsoft or Apple. Thirdly, make sure you have an adblocker installed (Adblock Plus is a good one and is available from www.adblockplus.org).
None of this was the fault of the gentleman’s internet provider or anti-virus software. It was all because of lies and fraud committed by the scammer.
It is a piece of cake for crooks to change a legitimate advert link over to a crooked one. So do be careful and don’t let ANYONE you don’t know remotely control your PC.
If you have been a victim of on-line fraud, report it to www.actionfraud.police.uk (or call 0300 123 2040). In addition, ensure you inform your bank, credit card company or building society.
