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A friend, who is not tech savvy, had a message pop up on his computer screen. It said that the computer was infected with a virus and to call 844 780 6784 for help. Not knowing any better, he called and was told it would cost $199.99 for them to fix the problem. Fortunately, he had enough sense to ask a friend for advice rather than hand over credit card information.
Now we just have to figure out how to remove it. :-(
The Feb 5 message might be a good starting point for doing more research.
No the number popped up as a warning that my computer was being hacked. I called the number and he said he was a Microsoft technition and he woul diagnose the problem and fix it. They wanted 399.00 for 3 years and 499.00 for 5 years. I told him I was not comfortable and hung up and shut down my computer. Not sure what to do next.
This is scam.
They did not call, but rather,
this was the phone number on a computer popup
generated by a malware program that my friend
somehow got installed on his Windows 7 64-bit computer.
There were two different numbers, in fact
1 888 755 6582
1 844 780 6784
When my friend called,
the scammer claimed to be a Microsoft technician
and wanted to charge $180 to fix the problem.
Thankfully my friend did not give any
bank account nor credit card information.
Thankfully my friend called me.
The computer's "Task Manager"
showed about five different processes
(I do not remember their exact names)
grouped all together, named something like...
gt_ast???
g2a_???
..I should have saved a sreenshot,
or recorded the exact names...
I RIGHT-clicked one of those processes,
and clicked "Open file location"
It was in the folder "GoToAssistant"
(if I am remembering it exactly and correctly)
and that was at
C:\Program Files\GoToAssistant
...or it might have been
C:\Program Files (x86)\GoToAssistant
One of those two... for sure,
on his 64-bit Windows 7 computer.
That lead me to believe I could uninstall it
with the Window 7 "Control Panel" item
"Program and Features".
(which back in the Windows XP days
was the "Control Panel" item
"Add/Remove Programs"
I uninstalled the program using the computer's
Microsoft Windows "Control Panel" option
"Programs and Features".
I found it in the list of installed programs as
"GoToAssistant".
I click once on that line to highlight it.
Then I clicked the button at the top of the list,
a button labeled "Uninstall".
My friend also had several 'toolbars' in the
"Programs and Features" list which I uninstalled,
although I do not know if those were related to the
GoToAssistant installation.
I also had to open each of his browsers,
"Firefox" and "Internet Explorer",
and disable a couple of toolbars there.
I wish I knew of the best way
to report these $#%'ers
so that the would do jail time.
If you have been scammed in this fashion,
I know it is embarrassing, but please report it
to the police or other authority,
so that the immensity of your problem
gets put into the public record.
Your report might be the one that finally
gets the authorities on the ball.
I wish you all the best,
and my heart goes out to you.