I just wanted to take the time to tell you about a "new", or should I say revamped, scam that is currently going around. So far we have had 3 customers reporting this to us.

If you have experienced something similar to this scam, I would suggest you contact your bank, paypal or credit card company and get the charges reversed, I would also advise that you contact the police and lodge a complaint.

There have been two variants of this scam that we have come across.

Variant 1

You get a call, and when answer there is a ringing tone, (they are using a 'call back' system which could be charging you for the call)

The phone will be answered and the call scripts they use normally follows the following formats:

“Hello Mr Blogs, this is your Windows XP service provider - we have had a report from your computer that it is infected”.

“Hello Mr Blogs, this is your Windows XP service provider - we have had a report from your computer that it is running slow”.

“Hello Mr Blogs, this is your Windows XP service provider - we have had a report from your computer that it is about to crash and loss all your data”.

These are the few that we have heard about but there are many other variants.

They will then ask you to type in some commands that will bring up various files on your machine, they will then claim your machine is infected. The commands they ask you to enter are:

Go to the start>run menu and type in “prefetch virus” in the run prompt

INFO: This folder is used to help decrease loading times of programs on your computer, cleaning out this folder can affect the performance on your machine, and there will always be files in this folder.

Go to the start>run menu and type in “temp” in the run prompt

INFO: This is where temporary files are placed on your machine when installing or running programs, a large number of these files in this directory does not mean your machine is infected.

Once they have told (or convinced) you how infected your machine is they will then ask you to login to a specific website (normally www.logmein123.com) so that they can remotely connect to your machine and take control of it and fix your problem, they will also tell cost you a one time fee of £12(they use a low amount so that you think you are getting a great deal and that you will be less likely to try and claim it back). All the time they will be re-assuring you that they are your “Windows XP service provider” and that they were told by your machine that it has a problem. They will also tell you that they are based somewhere in the UK, normally Bradford.

Once they have access to your machine they can and do cause damage to your machine. Various reports of this scam on the internet have people loosing important files and having their machine infected with a virus from the tools they supposedly use to remove viruses.

As they have used a call back system they can claim that you phoned them for this support, and they use this as an excuse to get a bit pushy on the phone with you. Remember if they can not convince you to pay them for the supposed fix, they are still making money off your phone call.

Variant 2

This variant works the same way except that they claim that your copy of windows is illegal and that you should pay them £60 or they will report you to the police.

These guys can be very convincing on the phone and if you do not know anything about computers, they can sound like the real deal. I would suggest that if you are concerned that your machine is infected, or you have had this scam happen to you, that you take it into your local computer shop and have them look at it. Or if you do choose to use an on-line support server that you are able to confirm the company physical address and contact details.

Please note that www.logmein123.com is a legitimate site that host a tool to allow users to connect and share workspace as well as get technical support. It is just being used by con-men.