Blog for hpHosts, and whatever else I feel like writing about ....

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Microsoft dumps partner over telephone scam claims

About bleedin time too.

One of Microsoft's Gold Partners has had its relationship with the software giant unceremoniously terminated, after being revealed to be orchestrating a telephone support scam.

Comantra, based in India, are said to have cold-called computer users in the UK, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, claiming to offer assistance in cleaning up virus infections.

The bogus support calls came from Comantra employees who claimed to be representing Microsoft, and used scare tactics to talk users into opening the Event Viewer on Windows, where a seemingly dangerous list of errors would be seen.

Once terrified by what appears to be a worrying collection of warning messages, and believing this was evidence of a malware infection, users would be tricked into allowing Comantra technicians to gain remote access to their computer, and hand over their credit card details to fix any "problems".


Read more ...
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/21/microsoft-dumps-partner-telephone-support-scam/

References

Microsoft Support Scam (again)
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=10912

Info: Telephone scammers still coming to a phone near you!
http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2011/03/info-telephone-scammers-still-coming-to.html

Support Scams: Even More Personal
http://blog.eset.com/2010/12/16/support-scams-even-more-personal

Fake Support: the War Drags On
http://blog.eset.com/2010/11/18/fake-support-the-war-drags-on

Marketing Misusing ESET’s Name
http://blog.eset.com/2010/06/23/marketing-misusing-esets-name

techonsupport.com, click4rescue.com, pcrescueworld.com: SupportOnClick revisited
http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/12/techonsupportcom-click4rescuecom.html

SupportOnClick: Phoned by Malwarebytes? BigPond? Anyone else?

http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/07/supportonclick-phoned-by-malwarebytes.html

SupportOnClick Update
http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/04/supportonclick-update.html

supportonclick.com scamming you by telephone!
http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/03/supportonclickcom-scamming-you-by.html

Fake tech support call scam - prefetch virus logmein123.com
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/fake-tech-support-call-scam-prefetch-virus-logmein123com

New scam - They call you by phone!
http://www.malwarebytes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11156

Staffordshire Council - Telephone computer support warning (PDF)
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6997DBB0-E31E-4AFB-A886-C9DDEE114204/90090/TelephoneComputerSupportWarning.pdf

Cold call scam warns of virus infection
http://www.h-online.com/security/Cold-call-scam-warns-of-virus-infection--/news/112893

Scareware scammers adopt cold call tactics
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/10/supportonclick_scareware_scam

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