Phone Scam Adds Computers to Botnet

Security experts are warning about a new phone scam exploiting Microsoft. The scammers are making phone calls claiming to be from the company’s tech support department. The fake Microsoft representatives call and explain that critical errors have been detected in the recipient’s operating system and they want to help correct them. To do so they walk them through several “diagnostic” steps, one of which is to download a program from a website the scammer sends them to. If the recipient goes along, they will have given the scammers remote access to their computer. They then turn their system into a zombie, add it to a botnet and start pumping out spam. Some variations of the scam use the remote access to launch a phishing attack, scanning the system for any personal information. A few bold scammers have even demanded payment for their “help”! So far the scam calls have been reported in Australia, the UK, and the United States. It’s not yet known exactly what botnet is behind the attacks.

If you or any of your employees get such a call, hang up immediately. Should someone in your company fall for the scam, take the infected computer off your network and off the internet completely until it can be cleaned out. An even better idea would be to keep computers containing sensitive data such as financials and employee info isolated from the network and internet in the first place. If it’s not connected it can’t be infected very easily.

Microsoft says they are aware of the calls and are investigating.