An elderly friend just purchased an HP Pavilian (Windows 8) 13-A010DX from Best Buy and was setting up his Office 365 account when he received a pop-up (from his browser, I’d presume), which stated that he had a security issue and to call “1-888-391-6168.”
My friend called the number and allowed the scam artist on the other end to remote into the computer, hijack it, and also was convinced to provide a credit card number. After providing the number, my friend realized he was “hacked,” cancelled the card and unplugged the computer, then called me. He typed in his Optimum Online account password during this process.
- I had him unplug his cable modem from the provider.
- I explained that Microsoft, Apple and any other legitimate company would never approach him offering help.
- I had him call his cable provider, Optimum, to try to lock down his e-mail account and recover it, remove any forwarding, and to change his password utterly. He claims to not have had any e-mails of significance in his account and deletes/purges his account frequently.
He has a Wi-Fi router shared by several other pieces of technology throughout the house, but not connected to each other via a network.
Regarding CDs, the 13-A010DX does not have a CD drive.
I live over 8 states away and cannot be there physically and have no desire to compromise my own systems by going in remotely; nor have I any solid experience with Windows 8.
My knee jerk thought is to have him take it back to Best Buy, and have them wipe it. Alternately, I believe there may be some sort of built-in factory reset with an HP build.
I am baffled that this happened and have no idea how to proceed or how to advise him to proceed.
