Cousin got scammed by remote . How do we fix it ?

[Wolf359]

Then just hang up. Don't know why scammers would be calling business unless they're just doing random calling. Scammers like to prey on elderly people because they typically fall for their scams easier.

That's the whole point of a robocaller. They call all the numbers and the robots do it so they can call all the numbers so it doesn't matter who it calls. On the other hand, the new shaken/stir seems to have cut down on some of the robo calls. Still a couple here and there, but not like the usual several a day, more like one every couple days. It's only been 6 days though.

 

[Brons2]

It's extremely easy to spoof an email address. It's also very likely that someone who works for Intuit got their account compromised and that's how they sent the email from an intuit address. Or it's possible that the name on the email account was "[email protected]" while the actual email address was [email protected]

You should use an email service that uses DMARC, DKIM and SPF to weed out spoofed email. If the email sender domain does not match up as coming from the authorized servers for that domain, the server will throw it out.

 

[Brons2]

Then just hang up. Don't know why scammers would be calling business unless they're just doing random calling. Scammers like to prey on elderly people because they typically fall for their scams easier.

Because the businesses have big money!

We get tons of targeted attacks all the time to our senior execs and finance people. We stop most of them, but occasionally one gets through. We always tell people to confirm money transfers with a phone call if even the slightest thing seems off.

People have gotten tricked and wired millions of dollars to the bad guys, the stories are in the industry rags. You'll hear dozens of them every time you go to a security conference.

Government is an even better target, because they are often resource constrained to hire the appropriate talent to protect their assets, and there is constant pressure to cut costs from the taxpayers. I don't know what the City of Atlanta paid after their ransomware attack. but I'm sure it was a lot.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Because the businesses have big money!

We get tons of targeted attacks all the time to our senior execs and finance people. We stop most of them, but occasionally one gets through. We always tell people to confirm money transfers with a phone call if even the slightest thing seems off.

People have gotten tricked and wired millions of dollars to the bad guys, the stories are in the industry rags. You'll hear dozens of them every time you go to a security conference.

Government is an even better target, because they are often resource constrained to hire the appropriate talent to protect their assets, and there is constant pressure to cut costs from the taxpayers. I don't know what the City of Atlanta paid after their ransomware attack. but I'm sure it was a lot.

I certainly hope people working at business don't get scammed over the phone. Getting scammed by fake/phishing emails with malicious links to download malware to be used by scammers for ransomware, etc is a whole different animal. All email must be vetted somehow. Phone scams are not that sophisticated, mainly geared towards older people who are easily fooled into doing what the scammer wants because they threaten that the police or IRS is coming to break your door in unless you send them a bunch of gift cards or similar non-sense like that. There all all kinds of YouTube videos were people record themselves playing with scammers over the phone for an hour or more - it's pretty funny how the scammers get played.

I can tell within 5 seconds on the phone (if I even answer a non-known number) or listening to a voice mail if it's a scammer. If I had a business where phone scammers were constantly calling, all employees would be told to listen for 5-10 sec, don't say a thing and just hand up if it's not someone they know or can trust through a vetted routine. Anyone at a business who wires millions of dollars after talking to them on the phone either didn't follow security protocol or the scammer was the greatest one in the world. In today's world, if a company and its employees can't come up with and follow security procedures then they will learn the hard way the more they successfully get scammed. It's a shame the world is like it is, and if it was to me scammers would be put in an iron maiden torture device if caught.

 

[Saabist]

As much as this stuff has been mentioned everywhere, it amazes me how many people still fall for this. I get phone calls all the time with someone wanting to "fix" my computer or it will turn to mush. It truly is shame we have to be on a constant watch for scammers.

I run honeypots in virtual machines to have fun with those guys when I have the time. The scammers are mostly clueless and are just reading from a script. It's funniest if they are using Teamviewer since I can let them remote into a Linux VM and watch them stumble all over themselves trying to get anything to work. ("Please to be excusing me, sir, I must get the senior technician...") So funny.

I also find it hard to believe that people fall for these transparent scams.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Hope this works out for the OPs friend.

I see scams daily, literally. All manner and forms.

Never click any links from unknown sources. If any business emails you telling you to click a link, close the email and go directly to that company site and confirm. For instance, any banking or paypal or similar such as a problem with your account, or need to update your password, or other nonsense; 100% of the time I have done this the email was fake.

 

[PWMDMD]

I would never allow anyone remote access to my personal computer. Even my bank. If things need to be changed for me to interface to a vendor, tell me what the changes are and I will make them. I will send you a screen shot after I have made changes.

At work I would allow the L2/L3 support people to remote access if I was working on a problem with them.

We have two different practice management software programs and when something goes wrong it almost always involves allowing the vendor to remote-in and fool around with **** I have neither the time nor the desire to fool around with - the key is to just be sure it's actually the vendor. This is easy because we call them, at the number we know goes to them, and then they have an entire authentication process. I've watched them work and it is sometimes a 20+ step process involving changes in the registry, setting Windows to emulate a different version of Windows, running small utility programs that only they have, etc.