Microsoft called my house? or did they?

[DorJammer]

So my 6 month old dell with win 7 was coming up on the renewal for the Kapersky virus software it came with. Decided to go the Norton 360 route.

BIG mistake, HUGE! the machine slowed down to pre XT speed, nothing worked. I was running a scan (with fricken Norton 360) figuring OK you got whacked with something

Phone rang, guy ID'ed himself (massive indian accent) as calling from MS. said my machine was pinging them with hundreds of errors a minute. Weird huh?

So, in a sense of wonder, I allowed him access to my computer via an internet site, he showed me a security log with over 3200 errors and warnings in just a few hours.; Said it was Norton 360.

THEN the big sales spiel, I could get MS WIN ULTIMA for just $240 dollars, and it would take care of everything!

And that's when common sense kicked in and I bailed. Thanks him, wished him merry XMas and then pulled the plug on the router killing the connection.

Talked with a buddy, who confirmed the disdain for Norton, deleted Norton,loads MS security essentials, turned on a firewall, loaded malewarebytes, cleaned up some adware crap, and now the puter is fine


Does anyone have any idea if the Windows ULTIMA call was legit? Did I fall for a scam, just what the heck is going on here?

inquiring minds want to know

[TFOGGuys]

Sounds like one of the fake antivirus scams... they infect your computer, then sell you a "solution".

I've been using AVG for years, but will probably start switching to Microsoft Security Essentials because it has both faster scans and lower system overhead. I also run Malwarebytes and Spybot fairly regularly.

[TurboGizzmo]

What was the site he gave you to access your pc?

[Depths_of_Mind]

H8 norton... is CLOSE to a virus itself IMHO...

[Matt]

We used to use Norton at work, I hated it. We then switched to McAfee and liked that much better.

You can get free anti-virus software from avast: http://www.avast.com

Better yet, buy a Mac. We switched at home a few months ago and I don't ever plan to own another MS PC.

[DorJammer]

What was the site he gave you to access your pc?


here is the URL
http://www.ammyy.com/en/

anyone recognize it?

[Matty]

Better yet, buy a Mac. We switched at home a few months ago and I don't ever plan to own another MS PC.

:imwithstupid:

[PunyJuney]

Larry, Microsoft support logs everything and will have a record of the call. They have to open a ticket for everything. I worked for them back in 2007 and they even logged a ticket for silly internal stuff.

You could just phone them or email them. I'm sure there it would be a time consuming endeavor but if it put your mind at ease it might be worth it. Personally I think you were hit by an opportunistic company that was attempting to take advantage of you via your Norton purchase.

[LambeauXLIV]

I've heard about these scams popping up a lot lately...

Did they just open up Event Viewer and show you the errors there?

[~Barn~]

That sucks. Your friend got you on the right track though.

[Sarge]

I love how people get a negative image about something and then stick with it, no matter what. Norton and McAfee both finally caught on to the fact that their software was bloated and heavy, and generally sucked, and they have both come around and fixed it. The new Norton, especially, is a much better product than it was prior to 2008. The corporate editions aren't bad either, they're very transparent and hardly system intensive at all, a HUGE difference to what they were a few years ago.

Now, having said all this, I still use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is FREE, but I did use Norton, and I put it on most of my family members computers, because it's so much better these days.

What happened in your case, it sounds like you either installed a pirated version of Norton, which was infected with something, or you got scammed into purchasing a copy of Norton that was infected, or just randomly picked up one of the fake Virus Scanner scam viruses. The fact that you actually recieved a phone call from these a*holes likely means that you entered in some personal information somewhere, either through a scam website or actually into the fake anti-virus itself. Norton didn't cause all those errors, some fake anti-virus virus caused all those errors posing to be Norton.

You got scammed buddy, and somewhere along the line you actually handed over personal information. Might be wise to check your credit report.

[~Barn~]

http://o.b5z.net/i/u/10035875/i/free_credit_band_31249344805.jpg

[TurboGizzmo]

here is the URL
http://www.ammyy.com/en/

anyone recognize it?

Fake/Scam

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2010/12/08/ammy-com-scam.htm

http://forum.ammyy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1748

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/cu_sc_virsec_master?ws=support#tab3

Scan your PC with Malwarebytes and make sure your virus software is up to date and remove that software.....

[fasterlaster]

I would make the assumption that any information on your computer was compromised. Perhaps not, but do you want to take that chance? Assess what is saved on the computers (especially banking passwords or financial information) and work from there.

[Scored51]

I got one of the same phone calls a couple of weeks ago. The woman's accent was so thick I could barely understand what she was calling about. She said she was from Windows, and I ended the call after she told me that she needed me to turn my computer on so she could control it remotely. Uh, I don't think so...

[chanke4252]

i would take any call you get about your computer like that as a warning that you are probably jammed up with viruses and malware. run some virus/malware scans, clean up your registry if you can, and make sure you account for each installed program on the system such that each is something that you actually want. make sure you have a decent antivirus and firewall in place.

microsoft isn't going to call you to tell you that your computer is borked, unless you have some sort of service contract with them. they'd be calling my mother every night if that weren't the case.

[willb003]

here is the URL
http://www.ammyy.com/en/

anyone recognize it?

Thats not a scammer website, ammyy admin is a program you can use to remote access another computer. I use it all the time to help out family and even for some business.

But on another note, for that to work you had to give them your ID number, which allowed them on your PC.......

[Ricky]

100% scam. Unfortunately, this is a result of you installing a piece of software that you trusted, but shouldn't have. A piece of remote software you aren't aware of, and likely adware/malware that you weren't aware of (I consider 99.9% of virus software to be malicious in one way or another).

Kaspersky is one of the worst I've ever seen. My boss has had it on his computer for the last 3 years, and every time he'd come and complain to me about the internet speed, I'd tell him I have no issue and nobody else would either. Finally after 3 fucking years of bitching he finally agreed to let me redo his computer. Now that he doesn't have KasCRAPsky on his machine, everything works like a dream.

Virus software, in itself, is a virus. Use a more secure browser (stay away from IE and even Firefox as they are the most popular browsers and are more susceptible to attack), and keep your machine updated. Stay away from software that you don't need, and don't let other people have permission to install random software on that computer. I've been doing IT work since before I was old enough to work. Virus Software is the #1 culprit of system slowdown and other issues, next to the viruses themselves.

Shit happens, and infection is inevitable, like contracting the common cold. But we all know that to avoid a cold, you stay away from people with a cold. When you get a virus, you often learn what to stay away from. Virus software isn't always going to protect you, just as a condom won't always protect you.

[TurboGizzmo]

Thats not a scammer website, ammyy admin is a program you can use to remote access another computer. I use it all the time to help out family and even for some business.

But on another note, for that to work you had to give them your ID number, which allowed them on your PC.......

Ok i will clarify that it was a scam, the remote software is legit, but the rest is a scam...logmein, teamviewer, vnc, remotedesktop, all great remote software packages unless in the wrong hands.....i will have to try Ammyy sometime.

[chanke4252]

Shit happens, and infection is inevitable, like contracting the common cold. But we all know that to avoid a cold, you stay away from people with a cold. When you get a virus, you often learn what to stay away from. Virus software isn't always going to protect you, just as a condom won't always protect you.

that's why I don't use condoms or antivirus.