My aunt was recently hacked. She gave the info to "Microsoft" when they called her. I have since taken care of that lack of knowledge and her laptop but somehow the hackers stole her cell phone number so that when we try to call or text her it goes to the scammers fake support? I cannot find or think of a way that this makes sense unless the phone provider was hacked as well? Just trying to figure out what else might have happened.
weezil99, It's essential that we protect your aunt's phone number, and information. We take this very seriously and have a team to help with your concerns. When did this start? Here is a great place to start. http://spr.ly/6588D3HQ4;
JoelR_VZW
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Was this one of those scam calls we get that says they are from Microsoft
and they noticed a problem with your computer? Did she get this call from a
landline or the cell phone? If they called her on a landline did she give them her
cell number? Did she download an app from them onto her phone?
If she did I would uninstall the app and make a backup of it once she uninstalled their app
and then do a factory reset.I can not believe that these people are still getting away with this scam.
I get at least 5 or 6 of these calls a month. They all have different numbers but no matter what number
they call from I report that number to my phone company. I also go on those websites that
have the reverse call on them and report the numbers that call me. I hope that they didn't
get your aunt to pay them anything. There has got to be a way to stop this type of call.
You may have just found the link. My aunt is already back at the phone carriers store trying to work through this and the police have been involved but I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out how the laptop hacker could have gotten into her phone. I never thought of an app. She was fooled by "Microsoft" of course she would have downloaded the app so that they "Could get a hold of her if the call drops" this very well may be what I was missing. Thanks a ton Kathy
I will add more info to this post when I hear back from the family.
If they have access to her phone and she does any online banking they could gain access to that. Change that number all passwords. i'd probably even get new credit cards and bank accounts.and put a freeze on her credit.
they need to put warning labels on new devices stating that "Microsoft, Apple, Google the IRS, FBI and Nigerian Royalty are NOT going to call you or e-mail you ever"
I always seem to get the same guy when I get this call.
As soon as I hear his voice I know who it is. I really wish you
luck on getting it straighten out for your aunt. You may have to
do a full recovery to the laptop and phone to get rid of anything that
they may have dropped in there.Keep us posted.
How do they get transfer your phone number?
It's called "sim swapping". The hacker gets your phone number. They call the phone company and pretend to be you and tell the company that they got a new phone and need to transfer the phone number to it. Since the computer was compromised and probably had saved passwords in the browser, they could transfer your phone number without even making a phone call.
I really wish Verizon had a setting which was "Lock my number to this device unless I show up in a verizon store with a photo ID"
I heard about it in the podcast ReplyAll (link below). Sim swapping is described at 22:20 for a minute or two. Then skip to 37:35 to hear the FBI guy talk about what a hacker can do to you and later on how to protect yourself. Or just listen to the whole hour and 10 minutes if you want to be really concerned.
https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/130-lizard#episode-player
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