[Hidden-tech] iComputerCare: dangerous or the real deal?

[Chris Hart]

This has become a very common scam

Everyone should be wary of such phone calls. Anytime anyone previously unknown contacts you and purports to know things about your computer systems, and especially about you or your business, you should consider them suspect. 

In some cases the person contacting you will even offer details about you and that will lead you to believe they actually have legitimate knowledge.  Such as your operating system version, or IP address, or email address, or Internet service provider. All these details are pieces of information that are easily acquired by scammers. 

If you ever get a call such as this that you think might be legitimate (such as the person claiming to work for a company that you actually have a relationship with) you should ask the representative for their name and an ID # and a number at which you can call them back, as well as a trouble ticket number.  

Then call the main phone number you have on file for that company (not the number they gave) and ask if the first person was legit and for the new rep to call up the ticket number. If none of this ends up correlating with what the first representative said, then it was never a legitimate call in the first place. 


Chris Hart
     Computer Support & Technology Consulting
        for Connecticut and Western Massachusetts
            Tel: 860-291-9393
                http://www.MyMacTech.com

> On Oct 28, 2014, at 5:03 PM, Ed Bride <Ed at edbride-pr.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> HTers,
>  
> Has anybody received a cold-call from a company called iComputerCare.com? They present themselves as calling from “the maintenance department of Windows,” saying they are connected to all Windows computers. And my computer is sending error messages with indications that dangerous software is being downloaded, etc., etc.  When I asked what IP address was sending them these messages, they gave me 172.116.10.177, which I checked with WHOIS, to no avail.
>  
> I talked with them for a while, but when they asked me to sit in front of my computer (where do they think I was already sitting?) and start looking things up, I decided to ask if the call was being recorded. They said yes, and I reminded them that they had broken the law by not telling me up-front; when I said, “I’d like to record this as well. Would you please start this conversation over, so I can get it from the beginning,” they muttered something in a foreign language, and hung up.
>  
> OK...a huge waste of time. I suppose the question is: is this a new scam, an old scam, or not a scam?
>  
> Ed
>  
>  
> = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
> Edward J. Bride
> Technology Public Relations
> Twitter: @EdwardBride
> LinkedIn: Ed Bride
> 413-442-7718
> <image001.jpg>
>  
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