Guy tricks Windows tech support scammers into installing ransomware

home windows tech improve scammers have fleeced an implausible selection of individuals out of their arduous-earned money. One geeky vigilante made up our minds to turn the tables.

Now, a number of tech-savvy other folks have had a little bit fun on the cost of these fraudsters. most often they play alongside and waste as a lot of the caller’s time as possible and watch them harmlessly fiddle with a digital computing device. This guy took issues to the following level.

Ivan Kwiatkowski is aware of masses about how these shenanigans go down, and sadly for the would-be scammer on the other end of the faraway connection he also knows a fair bit about social malware. Kwiatkowski performed alongside, allowing a scammer named Dileep to connect with his digital computer — which he’d intentionally left prone —  and played dumb whereas various DOS instructions have been run to make him assume his machine used to be riddled with malware.

He used to be advised that everything could be remedied via buying a “tech protection package” for the bargain price of €299.ninety nine (about $ 335 at lately’s change). That’s beautiful steep — more than the ransoms demanded by way of some malware — but Kwiatkowski performed along. He fast produced some check credit card digits and relayed them to Dileep.

When the cost wouldn’t go through, he pretended to be confused and produced a new set of numbers. these didn’t work either, so whereas his “tech support agent” tried to determine why with his “manager” Kwiatkowski bought an idea… an awful concept. He obtained a stupendous, horrific thought.

He’d already observed that the remote regulate tool the scammer was once the usage of allowed him to ship and receive recordsdata. So he turned to his inbox, the place he had a few samples of Locky ransomware variations. He grabbed one, renamed it to seem like a digital picture, and fired it over.

Kwiatkowski feigned imaginative and prescient bother and suggested that Dileep simply take a look at an image of the bank card as a substitute. It for sure appears like he did, although, strangely, the image must’ve been corrupted… because nothing came up on his reveal when he double-clicked it.

That’ll quickly alternate, though. A ransom discover must be showing any time now.