SCAM Alert: PC Support World Windows Event viewer
Hi everyone, this was just too important to ignore.
Last night we were targeted by a scammer… yup – dumb huh… WRONG people!
What was the scam?
Basically, a call centre rings you (number from the phone book) and tells you that they work for a global support organisation because your computer has alerted them of a problem. If you ask for their name, organisation they work for, or a return phone number they will not give their name. This should be your first trigger that it is a scam.
Microsoft will NEVER call you in this way. This should be your second trigger to thinking this is a scam.
The caller then walks you through a heap of steps using the windows event viewer to prove that our computer has issues. To do this, they ask you to Run Event Viewer by using the Window Key (near the CTRL key) + R and type in the program name. This should be your third trigger. There are about three steps here using the Windows Event Viewer (eventvwr). There is no harm in this step, however you are left feeling convinced that there are issues, ready for the next stage.
The next stage is the dangerous part where you are directed to a web site www.pcsupportworld.net (This link is disabled) and you are then asked to click on a remote support link. THIS BIT IS THE DANGEROUS PART as it downloads a Trojan that they can use to control your computer.
What did I do?
I told them that they were scammers and that I would report them to the local authorities. This is what you should do as well.
What did I tell the kids about?
We talked about phone safety and that there are baddies that can just guess our telephone number. So always asking who is calling, and saying who it is on the phone. We also talked about if the person makes you feel uncomfortable, then hand the phone to a trusted adult immediately. The same principle is true online – if something bad happens, then report it, and get a trusted adult to help.
- Hello <child’s name> speaking…
- (usual response) Hello <child’s name>, may I speak with your parents please
- Sure, may I ask who is calling?
- Certainly, it’s grandpa
- (Generally loud!!) MUM, DAD, GRANDPA’s ON THE PHONE
What should you do?
Hang up on them, and inform your local police cyber security unit.
miFamily.net 
This is great info. Thanks alot. I have let the family know. We run on Mac so they would have trouble getting us convinced but I’m sure there is a similar Mac scam. Good to know about them!
Hi Julie Maree, there certainly are a few mac scams as well, and we also recommend using some form of Mac virus protection as well. At the very least, this will avoid the chance you have passed a virus on to friends without knowing.
We’ve written about this before in our earlier post here: http://goo.gl/ogtJB
Thank you for this advice – this really helped me as I was just called – Excellent
I received a similar call from a woman,sounded perhaps Indian, who identified herself as an employee of Microsoft. No caller ID #. She showed me a list of error messages on my computer, and offered to correct the problem simply by connecting to my computer. I asked her for an email address, which she gave as: windowsglobalsupport@yahoo.in. When she asked if I was ready to connect, I asked her for a phone#, which she dodged by stressing the urgency of my situation. I then indicated that I would contact the email address and get back to her. She immediately terminated the call. When I googled the email address, I was directed to your site. Thanks!
Thanks Butch,
Very happy to have helped. Please share our site with your friends, and if you wish to stay in touch, then connect up with our facebook site http://www.facebook.com/mifamily.net
I typed their word into my search instead of run. It came up scam LOL. I wasted a good 15 minutes of their time
Thanks Bob,
Great to hear that some others have been able to waste their time :-))
If you haven’t already pop on over to the Facebook page and like that too as some posts don’t make it over to this site.
All the best.