Sophisticated Hacker Scam Discovered

Well, I had an interesting morning... kind of fun to sidestep a hacker, but horrifying to know what he's about.

I received a call from this number this morning, 800-624-9896. I have no support requests right now. They claimed to be from Dell concierge. They claimed there was a file on my computer preventing updates. The number itself was Dell on my caller ID. when I remained suspicious, they gave me my exact service ID tag on the bottom of my computer, my model, my email address, etc. At that point, they took me to FastSupport dot com, wanting me to download the Go2Assist software (which I have from a support request in September and one back in July- the July one was solved by the Alienware guy, while I solved the Net Framework issue on my own, without having to reinstall the OS as I'd been instructed by tech). That software, had I used it, would have given him access to my system. Since I've done some tech support at an online high school, I prefer to know how to do things myself, so I told him I do some tech support and would rather he walked me through it, I already had Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Exploder, which I never use) open so I could find the "file" he was speaking of. At that point, he asked me if I knew what a BSOD error. I responded Blue Screen of Death. He asked how does one fix it. I told him how it's fixed. At that point he told me he would call back and hung up.

I IMMEDIATELY called Alienware tech support. After explaining the issue and my suspicions (that a former Dell employee had stolen customer info and was now scamming them into opening a door into systems for hacking), the support guy did some checking and stated that the number was an OLD Dell number, and hadn't been in use for a while. That pretty much clinched it for both of us. He transferred me to a different department where I made my report.

DO NOT GIVE THIS THIS PERSON ACCESS TO YOUR SYSTEM! IT'S A HACKER!

(and actually, he sounds very much like a tech guy I once spoke with around July at Dell who hung up on me because he was clueless and kept saying there was nothing wrong with my system when my diagnostics said otherwise).

Since I DO do my own tech support, and only call in for extreme cases that have me stumped, I am obviously suspicious of random calls I get from people claiming to be support and wanting access. Even though he had my service tag number, I still wouldn't grant what he wanted.

It was apparent to both myself and the Alienware tech guy that this is a sophisticated hacker scam, being run by someone who used to work for Dell and has stolen data from them before leaving. If this changes, I'll update, but for now, don't grant the access requested.

Other things to note:

His voice sounded very like a Dell tech support person I spoke with in June (I think).  Back then, I was calling about issues detected during hardware diagnostics, including the occasional BSOD error during the diagnostic.  The person I spoke with then said that if everything worked fine outside the diagnostic, then nothing was wrong.  I called *** and insisted that I speak to someone else.  He hung up, without even giving me a ticket number.

2. He asked about browsers, and if I used chrome.  Shortly after, I noted some failed attempts to log into my gmail accounts- this could have been a coincidence, since he was never given any access to my system, but it should be noted.  I've never had this happen before, and particularly not with multiple email accounts.  In any case, they were failed attempts, and my security is intact.

3.  Knowing the service tag numbers means this person is likely to get a lot farther and far more dangerous than the idiots who call claiming a "problem with your Microsoft OS."  He has tools with the potential to convince even the most savvy user.  As someone who always likes to be hands on and to learn things I can use to help others, I kept insisting a hands on approach, which was the only thing that kept my system safe.  Given the degree of information this person had, he most definitely does or did work for Dell.  I suspect the latter, since he's using a defunct Dell phone number to call from.