OT: fraud attempt. Should I be worried?

[kitekrazy]

There should be assassins for such things.

 

[Henrik B. Jensen]

I heard a Danish computer security guy say on tv the other day that the fraud people are just so convincing that even people who consider themselves educated about - and on guard for - cyber crime methods may end up getting scammed.

It’s scary.

 

[musicisum]

Had to google first to see that "OT" can also mean "Off Topic"

Had to think about something else first. Good luck with all of that... I watched a bunch of documentaries about how those networks of hackers work, really frightening.

 

[benwiggy]

If you are on an Apple Silicon Mac, then you just need to "Erase All Content and Settings" from System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset.

That will give you a "factory" Mac. The OS is on a completely separate, read-only volume, and can't be altered. If it's been tampered with, it won't boot.

Wiping the whole disk (which includes various pre-boot volumes and the Restore Partition) is almost never necessary, even in a case like this.

Restoring your backup from before the call should be simple enough. It's unlikely that they've acquired any passwords, unless you typed them in after they installed *whatever*. But I'd certainly change anything you think might have been compromised -- and particularly your AppleID.

 

[ReelToLogic]

Since you are an administrator on VI-Control, and therefore have access to our email addresses and personal information as well as website control, I'd encourage you to wipe your computer and reinstall from scratch to be sure you are not compromised. If they had access to your PC and a terminal window it is certainly possible that malware is now on your system. Would you want to do banking on your system right now?

I'm sure that's not what you want to hear but sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry...

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

Since you are an administrator on VI-Control, and therefore have access to our email addresses and personal information as well as website control, I'd encourage you to wipe your computer and reinstall from scratch to be sure you are not compromised. If they had access to your PC and a terminal window it is certainly possible that malware is now on your system. Would you want to do banking on your system right now?

I'm sure that's not what you want to hear but sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry...

I don't have access to anyone's emails here!

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

[Double Helix]

Count me among those who have been scammed/hacked: Mid-March
Both home computers, my phone, Amazon, PayPal, bank account(s) and credit card(s) compromised
What a f*cking (ongoing) nightmare

SCAN Corporation (in Brandon, Florida) had my computer for almost two weeks: ended up having to wipe everything and install fresh OS. Also installed MalwareBytes Premium, which has intercepted two attempted intrusions since

Due to my ongoing cyber-paranoia, I am hesitant to click on any link now

 

[Bluemount Score]

My first thought was "Why would Orchestral Tools attempt fraud"

Got remote scammed in the past once. Shit was hella scary and in the shortest time, the hacker made my PC completely unusable - needed a full reboot. Data was lost. No way to tell what he got access to.

 

[benwiggy]

My first thought was "Why would Orchestral Tools attempt fraud"

I knew it! Any company that makes a Sustain that stops after 5 seconds is just a front!!

But seriously, folks:

It's very easy to curse Apple (and no doubt Windows) for all the obstacles they put in our path when we're trying to do things -- "why can't I just do what I want on MY computer?" -- but ultimately they are all designed to prevent malicious code.

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[d.healey]

hat he typed in terminal is saved in ~/.zsh_history

How'd you know he was using a Mac, are you an Indian hacker too?

 

[EgM]

How'd you know he was using a Mac, are you an Indian hacker too?

I thought he was on Mac because he said:

I did see they had the Terminal open, and I had typed my computer password to allow the remote access software.

On Win I would've expected Command prompt or Poweshell but you're right, I assumed a little too quickly, haha

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

It's very easy to curse Apple (and no doubt Windows) for all the obstacles they put in our path when we're trying to do things -- "why can't I just do what I want on MY computer?" -- but ultimately they are all designed to prevent malicious code.

This is why we can't have nice things.

They do take security seriously, but if you grant access to your computer who knows. I'm pretty sure the OS itself will take care of any malware small-time jackasses like this can come up with, but the danger is that they could get hold of passwords.

My guess is that I survived unscathed, but it's a nasty feeling. Invasive.

The thing is, I searched for Canon tech support's number and this is what I got! These assholes are normally very stupid, but in this case I got duped (although I was getting increasingly uncomfortable).

By the way, Canon's real tech support for their printers is outstanding, and it weighs heavily into why I keep buying them, most recently a 44" behemoth. But you have to go into the depths of their website to find it.

 

[tc9000]

What annoys me most about this is that people don't know how dangerous search engines are.

When you search for stuff, you are being targeted - but people feel safe with the likes of Bing and Google. Bad people use the same SEO techniques legit companies use to get their malicious links to the top of certain search queries - it's a powerful and effective technique.

It's not just searching for tech help - I recall reading about someone who was looking to grab OBS to create some content, so they googled for OBS, not realising that the top result was a backdoored version and BOOM they got owned.

 

[macmac]

Sadly, stuff like phony phone numbers and sites unfortunately come up in searches. I’ve had Safari catch and stop proceeding to a site where I had mistyped the URL—domains similar in name to the legit ones or with a letter missing (like when I typed quickly that time) bought by these scammers. One innocent slip is all it takes sometimes, even when being aware of scams…like we don’t already have enough on our plates to tend to!