A WARNING FOR ALL.

[Purple44]

Here a repost of a post over at the GRID forums. Be very, very, very, leery of giving anybody remote access to your computer!!!!

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/grid-game-908/428057-gridders-f1-2010-anyone-12.html

A WARNING FOR ALL.

Just had a phone call from a chap with an Indian accent . . .he said he was calling in response to an error message received from my computer, (because his call woke me my head was a bit befuddled so didn't think of how the hell he got my phone number).

He told me that he was from Microsoft and that they had received countless  error reports which if not fixed would destroy the hard drive, kept assuring me that he would clean the problem out of my computer.

He had me go to the Computer Management section and check for an error at the bottom of the list with a yellow marker against it, there were just two with red markers against something not particularly serious, so quickly changed the subject to ask me the frequency of my online usage, blaming the daily usage as making me very vulnerable (even an idiot can work that one out), and then asked me to open my explorer.

At this point my suspicions of requesting remote access to my computer were confirmed so I said, "hang on a minute, how do I know you are who you say you are" ?, to which he repeated the warning of receiving so many error reports and that he was only calling to help me. I said that as he had received an error report he must know which operating system I'm using, (I haven't got a clue if that info goes with the error report), and after repeating it about 5 times he finally said, Windows XP . . .to which I replied, "good try, chum . . .I'm on Windows 7", and put the phone down. . . he didn't call back.

I'm posting this in case someone else receives a similar call . . .

EDIT: Thinking further about this I can see I need a tech-head to help with a question: can a guy making a cold call then gain access to my computer in some way if I allowed remote access ? What I mean is that my computer internet access is by my phone line so is it just a question of ringing me and through that action if I give permission to access my computer he can go straight in ?

I, also, question why ? which makes me wonder if that little headcase of a so-called engineer who trashed one of my hard drives has got the sack after my complaints and is seeking revenge . . he did have my phone number.

[RoadKing22]

Wow... that's pretty creepy. I would be scared outta my mind if that happened to me! o_o

[allensawyer23]

we should be more careful from now on.

[Flatout2Player59]

Another bot. Kill it.

[LoraCreasa]

You still haven't delete this topic? Why??
 
*** link removed ***
 
Never answer and never keep this topic.

[Purple44]

Why should I delete this topic?

Giving control of your computer to just anyone, is asking for trouble!!

[GregoryStraus]

totally creeped me out.. but still it can't be helped.. its true that hacking is very rampant these days..

[Radyation]

I would rather think how he got my phone number