Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got a call from my partner who had just recieved a call at home from an indian sounding lady, she found it hard to understand her but she claimed our computer was being hacked and in grave danger.

She pushed on to and started explaining what Mrs Charlie needed to do but due to the suspiciousness she asked her to call back when I got home to sort out.

Now, Im not to wise in the world of hacking but does this sound suss?

I own a Mac and as far as I knew they are un-hackable.

Can any I.T. guru's out there suggest anything for me to do.

I told Mrs charlie to switch off the computer and modem for the moment.

It's a scam...

If they ring back... just keep abusing them until they hang up...

Or just put the phone down... and leave it off the hook for an hour... that should keep the line open... and cost them...

How can I be sure Rupe

it does sound far fetched

Maybe I could call Bigpond myself

+1 bud. Been going for awhile now.


Sent from Brett's Galaxy using Tapatalk

Charlie, if they had enough acces to your computer to identify a "supposed" problem....

Then your system would already be hijacked... and they wouldn't be telling you about it...

One of the first things they'll ask you to do... is enable "remote access"... so that they can hijack your system...

It's almost impossible to see through your modem to your machine... unless you allow access... or it is enabled by a virus/spyware app....

Let them huff and puff for a while... before abusing them... go have a beer and a chuckle... while leaving the phone "open"...

My brother is home at my place today, I received a email from him this morning at 11.00, he'd had 3 calls this morning from them..

All crap.

Awesome, my suspisions are correct

thanks for the link, I might have a play with this later hahahaha

Thanks peeps

1 mod point each

Jezz... you run the worst loyalty rewards scheme ever Charlie....

This is simply not true, it is a part of the apple hype machine. For a long itme it was simply not worth the effort to make any kind of malicious code that was seen on a wide scale. There simply were not enough users. Now that there are so many macs it is now becomeing worth while to hit them.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/232901251

Please make sure you keep your mac fully updated, including unfortunately paying for their incremental updates. Also do not forget that as new versions are released, the old versions fall by the way side and dont get supported. I read an excellent article on this but i cant find it now...

While this isnt strictly hacking, trojan horses are often a first step in gaining control of you computer.

As to your question, Microsoft/Apple would make updates to fix the problem rather than ringing you. It is just a scam mate Alot of them going around ATM.

Have a friend who is also a Mac user. He got the same call.
He also works in IT so he lead them on. They kept giving him directions for Windows for 45 mins before they realized he was on a Mac.

Not the article i had read previously, but an interesting read nonetheless.

http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/mac_flashback_malware_what_it_is_and_how_to_get_rid_of_it_faq

My sister got one of these calls and came to see me to find out what to do. I told her its a well known scam. She got his number the first time so she rang back and said "my brother says you are a scammer" and apparently he said " yes that is true, I am a Muslim and cannot lie"
Pfffftt, what was he doing with the first call if not lieing

Just sit with them for an hour drinking a cup of coffee saying yes, I have done it, now what?

Haha thats classic!

Yeah just keep asking them to repeat and say you cant find what the button you need to click.