My sister called me a while ago all panicked. The unthinkable happened to her AND then she did the unthinkable.
She says she clicked on a seemingly harmless link for a recipe on facebook. Suddenly ... BAMM! Some screen came up saying that her computer was now BLOCKED and do NOT try to turn it off or attempt to close down the screen ... or presumable things would get worse. A phone number was provided for her to call in case she wanted assistance fixing the problem.
Unfortunately ... all panicked --- my sister went ahead and called the number! Oh Nooooooo! Apparently some guy claiming to be from Microsoft said he'd help her. I THINK he at some point did some remote looking / snooping around if I understood correctly.
The scammer then recommended to my sister 2 companies that would supposedly help her fix her problem ... no doubt for plenty of bucks. One supposed company was something like --- Techzya or something along those lines. The other was something like Info6LLC or thereabouts. Obviously BS Scamsters. I think even a dollar amount of around $200.00 was mentioned as being the repair fee of one of the 2 scam companies.
At least by this time my sister started smelling a rat, albeit too late ... and told the scammer that no, this was as far as she was going with this.
ANYWAY ... so I need to know what to tell / instruct my sister that she absolutely needs to do.
I told my sister that to be on the safe side, she should take her computer to get her OS (Windows 10) completely reinstalled. It can't hurt. This way it is assured that there isn't something deeply hidden that the scammer left in there, like some backdoor or whatever.
The scammer told my sister that even reinstalling the OS completely would not help because "The international hackers" already had preliminary control of "her IP Address". Heck, the scammer even told my sister that even a brand NEW computer would NOT help her because her IP Address was now compromised. He even showed her I believe 4 supposed examples of how 4 international hackers already had "established" something or other ... as if more was to come. CAN an IP Address be compromised? If so, what would be the remedy? Or is it just scare tactics / social engineering? Of course we know the guy telling her all this BS is the Scammer in Chief. But, I do need to know if it is true that "an IP Address" can become compromised like permanently or what.
I told my sister that on the extreme least, she should change whatever all passwords she uses, especially since she said she does do Online banking.
My sister is wondering whether she should close her facebook account as in ... is it now compromised and any activity on that account now is prone to making things worse?
Should my sister change her cellphone number? The very scary thing is that with my sister having called that wicked number, the scammer now not only has her cellphone number ... but, also her full name from facebook. A dangerously closer step to identity theft and whatnot, right?
So yeah, what's the absolute that I have to recommend to my sister that she do to hopefully put out the fuse the best possible? She's gonna call in about an hour from now.
