Warning: Computer scam implemented by telephone conversation. Don't be fooled. I'm in New Zealand, but the following scam is currently also active in Australia and appears to be international. DO NOT ACCESS L0GMEIN123.C0M <-- o's changed to 0's to make it safer DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE WHO RINGS YOU UP OFFERING COMPUTER SUPPORT, JUST FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS ... Note that this is NOT the same as logmein.com *If you are computer literate enough to not be fooled by such approaches yo= u may wish to mention it to any friends who are possible targets as the "huma= n factor" may make it more believable to some people.* * * * * Russell McMahon _________ I was utterly amazed to be telephoned today, by ... There is a very brazen "scam" operating where people who know your name rin= g you up, claim to be from a Microsoft help desk, and advise that software on your computer is causing problems, They then direct you to several location= s on your PC that contain error files and warnings to demonstrate that your P= C is badly infected. (The files are real but part of standard PC operation) They then guide you through logging into a "logmein123" website to correct the problems. Yeah, right!!! This is, of course, a scam. Microsoft will NEVER phone you spontaneously. Microsoft will very probably never ever email you spontaneously (and if the= y do the message will probably be from their legal team for whatever reason :-).) BUT people are being taken in by this approach, PC's are being corrupted i= n various ways and some people are even paying to have a fixup program provided to remove all the "problems" that "Microsoft" have identified. Don't do it! Don't think about doing it! Tell your less computer literate friends who may be fooled about it. Here is an example discussion relating - some people here have been fooled by these people and have had damage done. http://bit.ly/logmein123scam (I made that link - it's safe - the original is messily long). This is a (genuine) Microsoft related site. Probably international clients. Some mention Australia. Note this record runs from February this year until October 2nd. For them t= o be persisting they must be continuing to get victims. My callers spoke passably OK English with a heavy Indian accent. Others mention a thick "Arabic" accent. Such people could, of course, speak Oxford English and still be scammers. So language and accent is not a firm guide. My experience summarised below. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D I wanted to see exactly what the call was about, so I followed the callers instructions as long as I was sure that they would do no damage. I Googled in parallel to discover what it was about. Getting me to the logmein123 sit= e took about 15 minutes ! Every now and then he would ask me if I knew the purpose of the various files he was showing me. I have him honest answers that were intended to totally mislead him as to my understanding ad competence. (It's obvious from the web reports that a number of people have done similar and they probably want to cut their losses early on if the target is too computer literate. When he got me to the danger point I had a "more open" discussion with him. He was very tenacious - first directing me to Google references that proved they were legitimate 9yeah, right) and the= n when I read him various "other quotes" he directed me to Google references which said that Microsoft was a scam, which, he said, was clearly incorrect= .. I asked him if he didn't think that Microsoft were in fact ripoff agents, but I suspect he was not following me by then. I try to never hang up even on the most persistent callers but in the end I had to goodbye goodbye goodbye him and hang up. About 5 minutes later the phone rang. I answered it "Goof afternoon, Microsoft Technical Support". We went from there :-). This was his "supervisor". Alas for his cover he got genuinely heated in support of his fine company, which he named (fwiw) and in the end got reasonably abusive, told me that I was the sort of person that was ruining his company's reputation (which, I told him, I had not known the name of, until then). He said that they would certainly never support me in my obvious need. And the= n tried to do it all again. I had to goodbye goodbye goodbye him too. Russell McMahon --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .