I just got skammed.. or maybe spacked... spyped... skacked... OK, I like Skacked! Skype is reducing the cost of hacking everything out of your computer (all your passwords, accounts etc) and into the pockets of the nefarious; like these skeezes at "irssupport.net" - otherwise known as:
registrant-firstname: Mayur
registrant-lastname: Agarwal
registrant-street1: 190A, Manicktala Main Road
registrant-street2: Kankurgachi
registrant-pcode: 700054
registrant-state: WB
registrant-city: Kolkata
registrant-ccode: IN
registrant-phone: +91.9830873003
registrant-email: mayur@mavenindia.org
Most recent scam is cold calling you (by home phone) to let you know as a courtesy that microsoft have noticed your computer is currently downloading very nasty stuff and a 'microsoft certified technician' is ready to show me what the problem is (DON'T visit the website above) and after that they'll be happy to assist me clean my computer by remoting in.
What's scary is searching forums for 'douchebag' alerts and finding people GRATEFUL for the assistance of this company. It should go without saying that you just handed over control of your computer, your account details, passwords, financial information, etc. regardless of whether or not they helped you install a free antivirus!
I remember trying to interest the Aust Federal Police and Westpac in the early email bank scams (way back in the 90s) only to be told 'wasn't that a technical problem, not a criminal one?' This 'new' Skacking or Skamming or whatever has probably been around for a while but I found it fascinating.
In my work as a sometime computer network admin, I am training consumers/users to trust the tech support remoting in. Social engineer that with low cost Skype calls from India with well spoken people purporting to be from a very trustworthy brand and simply showing you a problem... Wow. They must be milking this.
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