phone scam hack

masufa

Commendable
Apr 26, 2016
25
0
1,580
mom fell for the phone scam that said she had a virus and let them into her computer then refused to pay them to fix it . Now internet and sound will not work. She has Win 7 should she reinstall W7 or what?
 
Solution
1.Turn off the computer.

2. Disconnect all connected devices and cables such as Personal Media Drives, USB drives, printers, and faxes. Remove media from internal drives, and remove any recently added internal hardware. Do not disconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, or power cord.

3.Turn on the computer and repeatedly press the F11 key, about once every second, until Recovery Manager opens.

4.Under I need help immediately, click System Recovery.

5.When System Recovery prompts you to back up your files, select a backup option:

•If you have already backed up personal files or you do not want to back up personal files, select Recover without backing up your files, and then click Next. Continue to the next step.

6.Click OK in the...
Before reinstalling, which is a pain if you don't take all your mother's files and settings out first, try a strong anti-malware to fix anything it finds. MalwayreBytes is probably the best and the free version will do a decent job.

Before downloading that, go into Control Panel>System>Advanced Settings>Remote and leave the tick in Allow for now. Click the Advanced button and reduce the time allow for connection from six hours to three minutes. OK that and remove the tick in that form then go back to the first form and untick that Allow box. Apply and Ok then restart the computer.

Go to http://www.malwarebytes.org download and run the programme then click to remove everything it finds.

It may not fix everything the scammer did but see how the system behaves after using it.
 
Even better. Download the most up to date version of MalwareBytes and put it on a flash drive or SD Card. Pop that into Mum's PC and let it scan. Being offline in these circumstances gives you a chance to stay ahead. Malware begets malware but only if it can get through the door.

The cause of the network failure might be quite simple- something like Internet Options in the Control Panel. Hit the Connection Tab and the LAN button. Tick "Automatically detect settings" and untick anything in the Proxy boxes.
 

Yes I did download it to a flash drive and then ran it on the said computer. It did find things which were deleted that however did not fix the problem.


 
Thanks tman1 I will try these programs. In case this helps when I try to connect to the internet I get a message that says I have no connection and it can't find any hardware when I try troubleshoot I get this message.
error occurred while troubleshooting
A problem is preventing the troubleshooter from starting when I click on details I see this

Package ID: unknown
Path: C:/windows/diagonstics/system/networking
Error code: 0x80070426
User: xxx-pc\xxxx (personal names replace the x's)
Context: restricted
 
The Net connecton could be a simply tick in a box in Control Panel>Internet Options>Connection tab>LAN button. Tick "Automatically detect settings" and remove any ticks there are in the Proxy box.

Does Control Panel>Device Manager>Network Adapters throw any light on the problem? Update Driver won't work if you aren't connected to the Net but you could go into the Details tab and scroll to HardwareIDs then take the VEN and DEV details and input those at http://www.pcidatabase.com. Transfer those drivers to the PC and it might get you back online.
 


Everything was set as you described. Went to Control Panel, Network and internet, connect to internet and get message that says Windows did not detect any networking Hardware.

 


Yes it shows in Device Manager and says it is working properly and there are no conflicts
it is Realtek PCIe Family Controller
She said he told her that if she didn't pay him 49.99 now to fix her computer that when she turned off the computer she wouldn't be able to go online to pay her bills. At that time she just hung up the phone.

 
The scammer only had access to her User Account so try another account. Go into c:\windows\system32 and right click on the file cmd.exe then select RunAs Administrator.

At the Command Prompt in the black form that shows up, type
net user Administrator /active:yes
then hit the Enter key.

Restart the computer and log in as Administrator. If it doesn't show up on the login screen, log in to her own account then sign out and the other account should show.

I'll be very surprised if she can't get on the Net and it will give us a clue as to which settings they wrecked so they can be put right.
 

Nope it says the same thing Not connected to a network
Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem
If I view detailed info it says No issues detected.

 
Did you try tmans' suggestion of ComboFix? Download it on to a flash drive or stick from www.combofix.org and carefully read the instructions for use down at www.bleepingcomputer.com. Run it and however long it takes, leave it untl it tells you where it's log wil be filed. Restart and try the Net again.
 


No I have not but will do it tomorrow, but I'm confused as to "restart and try the Net again". I'm still in Admin mode right now.

 


Having trouble downloading ComboFix it only wants to download to my laptop I can't get it to download to the USB drive, Could I download it to the laptop and then copy it to the USB?