[colug-432] "Interesting" Phone Call

[jep200404 at columbus.rr.com]

I got an "interesting" phone this afternoon from someone who 
claimed that my Microsoft Windows computer was sending them 
messages with passwords and other nifty secrets, and that they 
were calling to help me remove the bad software that sending 
the secrets. He asked if I was in front my computer. I asked 
if the problem was due specifically to MS Windows, and he 
confirmed yes. When I said that I did not have a Windows 
computer, he said he must have the wrong number and hung up. 
He had a south asian accent. 

When he asked if I was in front of my computer, I think he was 
going to have me go to some web site that would take over
my computer under the guise of "helping me". 

If I had been thinking quicker, I would have booted Knoppix on 
a computer with no hard drive, then play along. With more 
preparation, wireshark, honeypots, and friends would be fun. 
A fun question _before_ visiting the sucker web site would 
be to ask what my IP address is (since they are getting 
messages from my computer) and how they got from my IP address 
to my phone number.