The international Support on Click scam (aka ITEZY.com and System Recure) has been around for a number of years as this suspect press release, media article, forum and post indicate.
Even Dell has a warning out about these scammers: We have recently received complaints from some Dell customers in relation to a company called Support On Click. We are informed that representatives of Support On Click have telephoned Dell customers and have indicated that Support On Click.com is in some way affiliated with Dell. Please note that Support On Click is in no way affiliated with Dell, nor is its controlling company, Pecon Software Limited.
This appears to be part of the standard spiel and one version that currently being used in the Northern Rivers area: He had me click Start-Run and type in eventvwr, and then click on Applications and tell him how many Error flags I had — well, there were hundreds, just from this past month. He asked for a little info about them, and started a spiel about how many people were having these kinds of problems. It sounded like the canned beginning of a sales pitch.
The Daily Examiner on 9 June 2010 reported on the latest manifestation:A TELEPHONE-BASED computer scam, which asks computer owners to install damaging and invasive software on the premise of a remote repair session has been stepped up in Grafton and Coffs Harbour in recent weeks.
Though the scam has been operating for well over a year nationally, with sporadic instances occurring locally, Computer Troubleshooters, Grafton reported it had heard of at least 10 customers affected in the Grafton area in the past fortnight and about the same amount in Coffs Harbour prior to that.
According to a Queensland police statement, the scam, which is sometimes known as 'Support on Click', involves people taking a call from a person working at a foreign call centre.
The caller claims to belong to a software support company that has been requested by Microsoft to fix problems on the victim's computer.
The offender confirms the victim's computer has sent error messages to Microsoft regarding problems with their Windows Explorer before directing the victim through a process on their computer, ultimately giving the offender remote access to the computer to download Trojans or gain access to personal information.
Once the offender has gained access, they will then give or sell the victim software in order to prevent this problem in the future. The victim, instead of downloading anti-virus software, unknowingly installs a virus on their computer which may be used to gather credit card data.
Microsoft's Asia-Pacific director for internet safety, Julie Inman Grant, confirmed the company was not contacting its customers by telephone.
"Microsoft will never cold-call a customer and request access to their computer system. Nor do we direct third-party support companies to do so," she said.....
However, to date I can find no specific mention of this attempt to deceive on scamwatch.gov.au. Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy is apparently more interested in furthering his grand plans for censoring the Internet.
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