[geeks] Scam ware on MacOS and Linux

[Steve Haavik]

The first thing I always end up asking them is what the name and IP 
address of my system is. They appear to have a script and if you deviate 
from the expected response they freak out. After repeating the same thing 
3 or 4 times they usually start swearing at me.

On Fri, 1 Jul 2016, hike wrote:

> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2016 15:38:31 -0400
> From: hike <mh1272 at gmail.com>
> Reply-To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> Subject: [geeks] Scam ware on MacOS and Linux
> 
> Yesterday, a heavily-accented person called explaining that my computer was
> spewing error messages to their servers.  Assuming that this was a
> Microsoft Support Call scam, I went along with it.  The person/scammer was
> confusing when I told her that my keyboard didnbt have Windows symbol on my
> keyboard.  (I was using a Mac at the time.)
>
> The person was also confused that I was running the Firefox browser.  She
> knew about IE, Safari and Chrome but was flummoxed with Firefox.
>
> The person insisted that I downloaded an app from www.supremo.com (?).  I
> did and, of course, when I dutifully double-clicked on the installer, the
> program wouldnbt run and gave an bWindows exe fileb error and, of
> course,
> wouldnbt run.  The person was greatly confused.  She asked what kind of
> computer I used and I said bLinuxb.  She really was confused, put me on
> hold and came back and asked me to download an app at www.teamviewer.com.
>
> (The Teamviewer seems to be a legitimate product for business conferencing,
> support, etc.  From a Windows friend who succumbed to the Microsoft Support
> scam, I know that they will use legitimate software in their scam.)
>
> This was the first time that I heard of this scam targeting Mac and Linux
> computers.  I was surprised.  Did I miss that in the news?  (Slashdot,
> MacRumors, MacInsider).  Does this need to be reported?  If so, where?
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