The anatomy of a Phishing Scam

Panic, your own worst enemy.

Computers are hard to understand, almost magical. All your lives are stored on your computer, and if you lose everything, it will be the end of the world. WRONG!

Phishing scams always follow the fundamental, primal fear that most computer users have of their computer – the unknown. By talking fast, with substantial loud alerts about being infected, pushy people on the telephone, email and even websites telling you all sorts of nasty things about your computer. This instils a sense of panic in the computer user, which opens them up for manipulation by the scammers. Fear is the scammers best weapon against you.

So what happens after you call the tech support number?

The first thing that the person you call will do is try to keep your panic levels up while appearing as someone who can solve the issue, they will just need to access your computer.

You will be asked to go to a website/page and download a file and do some things. – DON’T DO THIS!
This is where you are actually giving them access to your computer. What you are doing is downloading a remote access program and sending the scammer what they need to access your computer.

They will show you all the nasty things they find on your computer.
Most operating systems and programs work with numerous errors, incompatibilities and shortcuts that may make them look like there are significant problems, however, that is standard operating parameters. The scammer can show you all kinds of errors, sometimes the errors are real (but unimportant) and sometimes they merely cause errors or run programs on your computer that makes it appear as if your computer has serious issues. They at this point have full access to your computer and can do whatever they want.

They are not doing what they say they are doing.
The scammers may say they are going through looking for issues or even showing you things – that’s the distraction. They are going through your emails, documents, looking for passwords, credit card information, banking information and whatever else they can make money off of. They have full access to your computer and can do what they want.

The ask for money/service packages. 
Sometimes they will ask for credit cards up front, sometimes they will wait, show you some nasty stuff found on your computer when they take control, but at some point, you will be offered a “service” package that will keep your computer safe. These service packages can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars into the thousands. 

What do they install on your computer? 
So now you have a computer service plan all paid up, and now they install some excellent programs that will keep you safe. Well, not really. Typically they will install free programs anyone can download, the programs are outdated and usually don’t work. Commonly the programs are modified in some way – like maybe something that logs your keystrokes, records your banking websites, and many other evil things. 

An example of what $800 gets you.

A “service”  charge of $800 USD from a recent phishing scam victim got them six programs installed on their computer, three of which were free and designed for XP (they are using Windows 10) and one they already had installed because its free anyway. One program that I identified as a key logger (tracking keystrokes for passwords) and something I could not even recognise. 

This computer was running McAfee security centre and web security which did nothing to alert the user, so if you think your virus scanners will protect you, sorry they won’t.

The user also allowed an unknown entity into their computer with full access to do whatever they wanted. The only 100% way to make sure they did not plant something on the computer or open it up to future access is to wipe and start again. Loss of data, loss of time and a real technician can usually do all that for a fraction of the $800 USD the “service” company charged.