Compromised IP Scam?

[Cirrus]

I bought my missus a new laptop and an Office 365 subscription.

She logs onto Microsoft and enters the product key. The site says there's a problem: ring this number.

The bloke on the number says he can't see what's wrong so can he take control of her pc?

He then says our 'IP address is compromised'. She calls me and I say to him I've no idea what he's talking about and anyway it's our business not Microsoft's. He runs something and the last line says something about a Nigerian problem. He won't activate the key so I tell him I'll have to get my money back from PC World.

Surely this is a scam but the phone number came from the Microsoft web site.

How and why could you 'compromise' and IP address?

[WTFH]

Check the website she logged on to, also check the phone number she rang.

[Cirrus]

The phone number 08000148050 looks a bit dodgy. Maybe it's from a mis-typed URL.

[WTFH]

The phone number 08000148050 looks a bit dodgy. Maybe it's from a mis-typed URL.

http://findwhocallsyou.com/08000148050

Looks like a mistyped URL.

[MrMarkyMark]

Worrying that she let him take control of the PC.
There have been various, read different, Microsoft type scams over the years where they have asked for this.

He didn't install anything on there, did he?

Interesting article re. the mis typed URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/typosquatting/

[Cirrus]

I'm right in thinking you can't 'compromise' an IP address? You couldn't hijack traffic to Nigeria because it would be on the wrong subnet? You can't spoof an IP address because the Internet would direct responses back to the pukka IP address always so you'd never achieve anything?

[Contreras]

I'm right in thinking you can't 'compromise' an IP address? You couldn't hijack traffic to Nigeria because it would be on the wrong subnet? You can't spoof an IP address because the Internet would direct responses back to the pukka IP address always so you'd never achieve anything?

IP spoofing is technically possible. Although it depends on a careful and qualified definition of what's meant by that the first place!

However everything you described screams "scam". If the laptop is new then it would make sense to simply wipe and re-install it, or return it for the vendor to do the same.

[VectraMan]

IP spoofing is technically possible. Although it depends on a careful and qualified definition of what's meant by that the first place!

Surely spoofing is pretending the address the connection initiates from is different from what it really is. However if you're connecting to microsoft that could be redirected to a different IP. The easiest way would be to change the DNS server the PC is using to one that gives out deliberately false IPs, and the user would probably never know.

[eek]

This may be of interest

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cyberc...chrome-tricks/

Not so much an ip hack as a chrome browser hack

[DimPrawn]

IP spoofing is technically possible. Although it depends on a careful and qualified definition of what's meant by that the first place!

However everything you described screams "scam". If the laptop is new then it would make sense to simply wipe and re-install it, or return it for the vendor to do the same.

^ This. Reinstall the OS from the rescue disk and start again.

Then I would buy and install these:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/antiexploit/
https://www.malwarebytes.com/antimalware/