windows hack/scam/breach, my children fell for it.

[ChazFlibberpants]

You know those pop ups that come up that say something like your Windows Security has been breached, and so on and forth. My twin 13 year old boys got that message and took it upon themselves to call that number (18776877111) and LET someone take control remotely. Whatever they did they used the cmd prompt, and some other things but I'm not sure what. Whoever they were left a Notepad note with their name/number and some prices, 299.99, 499.99. I am really afraid they downloaded or that person uploaded something that sends my information or "spies" on me all the time.
What do I do? How do I make sure I'm ok? I ran Malwarebytes, Avira scan, Thank you for your time.

 

[Endre555]

Was the PC logged into any important accounts (PayPal, email, etc.)? If yes, change the passwords. You should also monitor these accounts for suspicious actvities. Most of the time these scammers try to convince you to pay that amount of money for sth. or they try to acces your PayPal acc. but they don't often put viruses on computers.

BUT there is a small chance they also put a trojan or some other virus on it, so if you want to be absolutely sure reinstall Windows.

If scanning it with multiple good antiviruses (Avast, AVG, Avira, Malwarebytes) with a full system scan and also a system startup scan doesn't find any viruses, then you're probably fine, though.

 

[Ralston18]

And turn off remote access.

 

[DeadRam]

I would backup your data and re-load Windows. Also, buy another PC for your kids or give them your current PC and get a new PC for yourself.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I would have thought youngsters would be more savvy than to fall for a scam like this, but maybe 13 years old is a little young to be risk aware. That said, a clean installation of Windows, changing any important passwords, changing router/gateway password would be what I would do. And keep an eye on any credit card statements/bank account statements.

 

[USAFRet]

I would have thought youngsters would be more savvy than to fall for a scam like this, but maybe 13 years old is a little young to be risk aware.

Apparently, younger people are more susceptible.
http/abcnews.go.com/US/tech-support-scams-hit-millennials-hardest-realize/story?id=51743331

 

[USAFRet]

You know those pop ups that come up that say something like your Windows Security has been breached, and so on and forth. My twin 13 year old boys got that message and took it upon themselves to call that number (18776877111) and LET someone take control remotely. Whatever they did they used the cmd prompt, and some other things but I'm not sure what. Whoever they were left a Notepad note with their name/number and some prices, 299.99, 499.99. I am really afraid they downloaded or that person uploaded something that sends my information or "spies" on me all the time.
What do I do? How do I make sure I'm ok? I ran Malwarebytes, Avira scan, Thank you for your time.

If they had actual control of the system for a time....
A full reinstall. Or restore from a full backup you made before this happened.
From a whole different system, change ALL of your passwords online. Every site you go to. All of them.

 

[mjslakeridge]

That is good advice to change all of the passwords using a different system ^^^. If the scammers installed a keylogger, they would know the new passwords also. I would probably change the passwords from my office, assuming their IT policies allow me to access all of the sites that I use a password on.

 

[ChazFlibberpants]

Thank you for all the responses. I changed all my passwords using a different computer, I have been watching my bank account all day. No problems there...it's hard to steal zero. When I get to it today, I am going to run cmd history to see what was actually done. One of the boys told me that he installed something through IE and I deleted that yesterday. I think now it's just going to be a wait and see game, unfortunately. Thanks again. It really did feel better have great responses.

 

[mjslakeridge]

"No problems there...it's hard to steal zero". I told my wife about this quote and she had a good laugh! Hopefully your boys are much wiser about computer security after this episode.

Did you read the abc news article that USAF linked to? I have gotten phone calls a couple of times from "Windows Security Team", wanting me to allow remote access to "fix a problem". I told them I was on a Mac (not true), so they gave up on me.