22.2.0.31 sleeping at the wheel father fell for a scam?

Never in a million years did I think he would fall victim to a scam like this. I have told him many times about these things. Any ways. Btw. Windows 8.1 with all latest updates and this happened using a limited account. He was browsing the dark side. Porn for that matter. And he got a pop up with in Firefox saying the computer needs repair, it is infected etc. Call this number for assistance to fix it and he did. I was gone and did not see or hear what was going on. The sob's used Team Viewer to take control of the pc. I don't even have that installed. And him not being a Admin. to install programs.

 

I am not sure how they got in? Maybe a modified version of it for it can work with limited accounts? All my father said is they was using a black screen and notepad to type directly. I showed him cmd prompt and he confirmed sure enough that was it. So, they probed looking all the over the pc and god knows what kind of commands they was running. I don't think they got to far making system changes? Since this was a limited account and they could not even disable NS? Let alone major system changes without the Admin password? So, even though initially nothing was wrong with the system.

 

Brand new pc btw not even a month old. They demanded $150 to fix it. Sad thing is he was willing and ready to pay. But, he did not have the money until payday. He told them to call back then and he will take care of it. Should have seen my expression when he told me about this. He was rather upset and very paranoid. Thankfully he did not have any super sensitive information on the machine or they would have got it. I immediately jumped in and went to work explaining we will talk later about this. NS, Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, HitmanPro all came up as clean. I took further precaution.

 

Even though the system came up clean. I went ahead and done a complete new install of Windows 8.1 Because imo. I have no clue what kind of commands they ran among other things. Did I do the right thing? I believe I did. As for NS. I know NS is not the be all end all. Any anti-virus for that matter. Just kinda surprised it did not block that malicious site. Sonar and heuristics are both also set to aggressive btw. We are going to have a serious talk about this today because as I said earlier. This could have been beyond serious if they got a hold of sensitive information. Even potential identity theft here we are talking about.

 

He also made another critical mistake telling the guy on the phone he is completely computer illiterate. Man I bet that guy lit up like a casino slot machine jackpot winner. DING DING DINGGGGGG! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. I will admit. Its rather true. He can easily be tricked and duped. Very gullible online. Hate to have seen if he got the fake FBI screen. Probably be in tears calling me up and freaking out. And get this. He was questioning me several times about this being fake. They had him so convinced. He was doubting me and believing it was the real deal. Maybe its old age or something. I don't know. He is approaching 70 soon.

 

I saved him $150 bucks plus the potential of ID theft and sensitive information being taken. What next though? If this does not convince him to take the internet more serious and its not just a joy toy when going to the dark side. I might not be able to help him next time and he might have already been had by they thief.