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Are you on a call with “tech support” from supportonclick, systemrecure and logmein123.com while reading this?

PLEASE TRY AND RECORD THE CALL, then contact me. Tell them you need to go to another phone if you need a moment to set up a mic.

DO NOT let them take control of your computer, but please try and get as much info as you can.

HUGE thanks and respec to youtube user striderzer0 for his great work in recording the call. See the four youtube videos below.

UPDATE: 13/01/2009 – Donal Macintyre covered this on ITV’s This Morning show. Watch it here.

Update: 04/12/2009 Made it into the news! Thanks to Malc for this one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/isle_of_man/8392303.stm and via Google News Alerts: http://www.buteman.co.uk/news/Rothesay-businessman-warns-of-computer.5883193.jp

Update: 26/11/2009

Since I first reported on this on Jan 18th 2009, this one page has had over 24,000 views and 261 comments, and recently there’s been a huge surge in the amount of calls received. I’m getting two or 3 people leaving comments every day now, and over the last week, the page views have surged to close to 400 PER DAY and easily accounts for the most viewed page on my blog by far.
Which suggests that Comantra or Supportonclick or Logmein123 or whoever they are calling themselves this week, are increasing their activity.

YOU CAN HELP!

Please, contact the media and/or help spread the word. It’ll only take 5 minutes.

If you are in the UK:

Tell a consumer programme about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/liz_barclay_consumer_series.shtml
or perhaps your local or national paper. Oddly, in the April the BBC said there “wasn’t any interest” in this story. Take a moment to prove there is!

Also, report it to: https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportascam.aspx

There are also threads on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1613667 and
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/502631/call-from-microsoft-maintenance-dep

The Register have an article about it:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/10/supportonclick_scareware_scam/

Note: The Staffordshire Police have also issued a warning about this:
http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3ECA6489-52AC-4A64-A48E-4E44743CB9CB/90090/TelephoneComputerSupportWarning.pdf

In the US:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22222049-Scam-Supportonclickcom-scareware-scam

In Australia:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1057308.html

Worldwide

Anywhere in the world:
You can help people find news about the scam by stumbling or digging:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.digitaltoast.co.uk/fake-tech-support-call-scam-prefetch-virus-logmein123com
http://digg.com/security/Fake_tech_support_call_scam_prefetch_virus_logmein123_com
Or log the info at http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01274900834

Even if you just post a link to my site on your blog, or in your favourite forum, it will help ensure that people looking for help, find it.

Other blogs referencing this:

http://hphosts.blogspot.com/2009/12/techonsupportcom-click4rescuecom.html – has some more info, as well as other ways of reporting the scam.

http://ctaspley.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/update-on-support-on-click-police-alert-to-scam/

From the comments below, it appears that logmein123.com is not the scam itself, but is being used by the scammers. Thanks to Michael in the comments section below for that info. If you have found this post useful, please use the “share this” link below if you have a social networking account such as digg, delicious, facebook, stumbleupon etc. It will help others to find this.

Update: We have a new caller! Many many thanks to Sherri for sending in a recording from her answering machine. I think this is a difference outfit, but it sounds scammy:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And McCaffee Siteadvisor has many aggrieved reviewers of the Support OnClick scammers too!

So, possibly post there too – anything to warn people.

See also threads here and here on MoneySavingExpert and a post on the JamiesRants blog

I got a call on the 16th of January with an “out of area” (ie: overseas, not “uk withheld”) caller ID.

He had a thick strong accent and started off by saying:
“Hello Mr Marshall, this is the Windows XP service provider – we have had a report from your computer that it is infected”. Well, that’s not my name, but one I use on forms where I think spam might result.

At this point, I started recording the call – the only problem is that the recording is illegible! I’m trying to clean it up so will post as soon as I do – check back later!

HELP! Does anyone know how to “clean up” bad recordings? Here’s a snippet of what I recorded – I still have the “original” file in audacity, and have tried changing sample rates. Is this recording lost forever?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I was also noting it down, and here’s what he told me to do:

Go to the start>run menu and type in

“p as in peter, r as in romeo, e as in echo, f as in foxtrot” – etc etc, to cut a long story short, he wanted me to type in

“prefetch virus” in the run prompt. As it happens, I know exactly what that would do – it simply opens the windows prefetch folder. The word “virus” is ignored

(For a bit more info on what this normal windows folder is, click here. As a rule, however, unless you know exactly what the result is going to be do not start following instructions random strangers tell you to do!)

“OK sir, can you please tell me how many files there are?”
I told him 30.
“Oh my gosh, this is a sign of very heavy infection. You must not touch these files. [about the only truthful part of the call]. Please now clear this box and type ‘temp’ and press enter”.

Again, “your computer has very heavy infection with so many files”. He then babbled some crap about how these file were your f-a-t32 system files and that “at any time these files could scratch your hard drive”. Riiiighhhht…..

Then came the money shot. “We will connect you now with an agent, please go to www.logmein123.com”
As I had full armoury on (google toolbar, avg, running Chrome etc), so I decided to check it out. It redirected to https://secure.logmeinrescue.com/Customer/Code.aspx

After some chitchat in which he confirmed my (incorrect, spamtrap) home address, he then said “I will now connect you to an agent – for this there is just a small one-time charge of £12″.
Before I let him take my details, I said I wanted to check what company it was. Again, he said it was “your Windows XP service provider” (whatever the hell that means).
To the answer “where are you based and what is your name”, bear in mind this man had a VERY thick/strong Indian accent and was calling from a scratchy overseas number.
“My name is Kevin Watts and we are based in Bradford”. Gold-dust! You couldn’t make it up! (Well, he obviously had).

I asked him to hold while I got my card. I put it on speakerphone and went down to make a cup of tea. I brewed up a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea, found a biscuit, did a bit of washing up, and went back upstairs. FIVE MINUTES later he was still going “Mr Marshall? Can you hear me?”. Nothing if not persistant! I then just decided to have a bit of fun and pretended he’d been put through to the UK police! Immediately, a supervisor (another strong Indian accent) came on the line sounding very surprised, and claimed that “Mr Marshall contacted us”!

So there you go – be warned. If I can get the audio up, I will.  Please post a comment below if you’ve had this call.

PS – it didn’t sound much different to this!