Subj : Re: How My Grandmother Lost $18,000 (scam)
To   : warmfuzzy
From : Ogg
Date : Tue Sep 10 2024 20:40:00

Hello warmfuzzy!

** On Tuesday 10.09.24 - 17:49, warmfuzzy wrote to All:

> How my Grandmother Lost $18,000 CAD
> --------

> It wasn't a trojan, or spy ware, or even a physical attack.  The attack used
> common remote access software used to root her computer.  AnyDesk and
> TeamViewer were found to be installed and active on her computer.  They also
> used phishing to pretend that they were the police...

That whole story is a sad commentary, indeed.


> Things like this are happening more often.  As home there is at least one
> scam every two weeks, and at times we have had several in one single week.

Maybe consider https://jollyrogertelephone.com/  ..and it  
screen the calls for you.


> They somehow route their calls over VOIP (voice of Internet protocol) in
> such a way  that they can't easily be traced back.  ...

I think phone companies should take greater responsibility for  
allowing international calls to come through.  And we should be  
given to ability to block numbers when desired.  Bell Canada  
used to provide *-star numbers in their phone books to achieve  
exactly that. But since the phone books are nolonger a common  
thing, the info is gone.  If you received a call that you  
perceived to be harassment or unwanted, you could press  
something like *88 or something and the last call would be  
blocked and reported.  I think that primarily worked for  
landline. But now, since many people have cellpone or mobile  
numbers, there is no single standard for blocking or reporting.


> P.S. a take-away from this lesson is that commercial software that is good
> (TeamViewr and AnyDesk) can be re-purposed for evil.  So on your boxes,
> unless  you absolutely need remote control software not to have that kind of
> thing  active.  It may be installed, however keep it on a tight leech by
> deactivating  it when not using it and activating it only while in use.

In the not too distant past, I've used Teamviwer to help assist  
a few people with their machines. Very handy. The remote client  
didn't even need a Teamviewer account, just a small generic  
download that would connect to the Teamviewer network, assign  
an access code, and all the client had to do was tell me over  
the phone what that code was.  But I can see how a scammer  
might be able to use the same approach and convince their  
target to do the same thing and gain full access to the  
client's pc.

I personally liked RDP if assisting people with Windows  
machines.  It too had a simple mechanism that someone could use  
to email me the "access link" and I could then connect to their  
pc.  But ultimately there were some reported security holes in  
RDP and it was wise to stop using that.

Meanwhile, I discovered Tailscale, and that permits me to  
access my own machines very easily so that I could primarily  
use VNC to access and control my own remote PCs.

.