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FireFox UpdateI Believe I've Been Royally Had !!!

Cruiser Too

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A few days ago, Firefox automatically updated itself on my PC.
A common practice that happened many, many time. before.
After Firefox's update... I'm in like Flint !!!

After the updating, I was locked in a loop and couldn't get out of it, nor could I access the web.
A window popped up and asked if I need help.
Long story short: I called their Advice Number which I thought was FireFox's.

This consultant (Indian) said he could help me access the net and asked permission to access my PC.
Of course I answered yes.
He went through and displayed my PC's internals and told me:
"You need to renew Microsoft software".
Immediately this sounded fishy to me !!!!
I told him I've NEVER had to "renew" anything on any of the PC's I've own over the years.
His canned answer was: You were lucky.

He told me I received an email from Microsoft asking me to renew, and must have ignored it.
I find that hard to believe !!!

He said I would have to renew and provided the link to do so.
What was I supposed to do ???
He was already in my PC.

So I furnished my Credit-Card info and unfortunately had a doc's appointment in 15-minutes.
Told him that and he said not to worry he'll have my PC fixed when I return.

When I returned after a few more minutes, I was able to access the Web.

The company's Name is: GTS TECH SOLUTIONS

Has anyone else been screwed like this ???
Under my circumstances... how would you have responded ?
 
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Passepartout

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So????????

OK, I see later that you were victimized by 'Ransomware".

Get it to a trusted technician and get the traces of their malware removed. The money you spent is gone. They will call you back and pretend to be from 'Microsoft'. Don't be taken in (again) like you already were.

Good luck. They are NOT your friends.
 
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DeniseM

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I never, ever give my credit card number to a stranger over the phone.

If I were you, I'd call the number on the back of my credit card, cancel the card and get a new one, immediately.

I also have concerns about them having access to your computer - no telling what they got.
 
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bogey21

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If that had happened to me, I would have grabbed my laptop and hauled butt to my local PC Repair Shop (it is about 2 miles away) where they have techs than know a heck of a lot more than me. If it was an easy fix, they would have fixed it for free. If it was something complicated, it would have cost me money but would have been fixed right.

George
 

x3 skier

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I never, ever give my credit card number to a stranger over the phone.

If I were you, I'd call the number on the back of my credit card, cancel the card and get a new one, immediately.

I also have concerns about them having access to your computer - no telling what they got.


Absolutely!!!

Cheers
 

dioxide45

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My wife's aunt was getting those popups before I was able to install security software. I see them randomly when doing web searches. It seems that compromised website fire up the popup with a phone number to call. My wife's aunt actually called but luckily didn't give out her credit card information. She said she would have to talk to her husband. They said they could wait on the line. Her husband has passed.

I was then shortly after able to install McAfee, and she hasn't had the problem since. Never call a phone number provided in a web popup.
 

Cruiser Too

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If that had happened to me, I would have grabbed my laptop and hauled butt to my local PC Repair Shop (it is about 2 miles away) where they have techs than know a heck of a lot more than me. If it was an easy fix, they would have fixed it for free. If it was something complicated, it would have cost me money but would have been fixed right.
George

Using hindsight, I should have done the same thing.

But..
  • One: I thought I was dealing with a consultant from FireFox.
  • Two: I have given permission to other consultants (HP, etc.) to access my PC to fix problems with my PC.
  • Three: The "Consultant" was already in my PC when he advised me of the need to renew.
  • Four: I had a doctor's appointment within 45-minutes.

I think I'll take DeniseM's advice and call/cancel my CC.
 

Cruiser Too

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So????????

OK, I see later that you were victimized by 'Ransomware". ..... Get it to a trusted technician and get the traces of their malware removed. The money you spent is gone. They will call you back and pretend to be from 'Microsoft'. Don't be taken in (again) like you already were. Good luck. They are NOT your friends.

The part I don't understand is how they snucked in immediately after/during FireFox's routine updating ???

It's not like I received an email and clicked on a link nor clicking on a link from a website.
 

Cruiser Too

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If I were you, I'd call the number on the back of my credit card, cancel the card and get a new one, immediately.

The one (only?) salvation I have is my Credit-Card company.
They're very good about alerting me of suspicious charges
and will immediately deny payment and automatically re-issue
and Fed-Express me a new Credit-Card.
Happened many times before.

I also have concerns about them having access to your computer - no telling what they got.

That... is a REAL concern !!!!
 

Cruiser Too

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Update !!!

UPDATE !!!

A hearty Thank You to all who replied.

I followed the advice and reported it to my CC company.
They canceled my account.
I should be receiving my new CC today.

They advise me to call the charging entity (3rd Party) and request
a cancellation of my charge. Without much fanfare... they agreed to do so.
My CC company told me if they denied my request, they would cancel the charge !!!

Took my PC to a local shop with very positive feedback on Yelp.
They worked on it for two days and charged me $105.
They said it was deeply infected with malware and it kept terminating their scan attempts. Eventually, they got rid of it.

Happy Days are Here Again !!!

I heard about a worse RansomeWare on TV news last night.
The scammers will get into your system and scramble all your data.

A PC repair shop can get your computer up and running but wouldn't be able to restore your data.... unless you PAY the scammers.
The report suggested backing-up your data onto a removable disc and disconnecting the disc unless you're backing-up or restoring it.
 

Ty1on

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A PC repair shop can get your computer up and running but wouldn't be able to restore your data.... unless you PAY the scammers.

One reason to ALWAYS back up your important files on a medium external to your computer.

It doesn't always have to be an external disc they wrote about. It can be burned into a CDROM or DVDROM, saved to a thumb drive, or saved to Cloud. I prefer to back up to an external drive I don't normally keep connected to my PC, and keep a copy of things in cloud if I'm not worried whether hackers see them.
 

TUGBrian

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many services nowadays provide a very cheap online backup solution that will keep things stored for you automatically.

can literally get 100gigabytes of backup storage for a few dollars a month IMO...its extremely handy!
 

VacationForever

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The issue is the popup to update Firefox was not a legitimate update prompt. It came frm either something you had clicked on immediately prior to that, like a link from a search result which was bogus, or that you had a malware that you had installed some time prior, again from clicking a legitimate looking site that was either infected or a bogus site that looked legitimate.
 

Cruiser Too

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The issue is the popup to update Firefox was not a legitimate update prompt. It came frm either something you had clicked on immediately prior to that, like a link from a search result which was bogus, or that you had a malware that you had installed some time prior, again from clicking a legitimate looking site that was either infected or a bogus site that looked legitimate.

More than likely.. the popup to update Firefox may have been the bugger.
Strange... I believe I set my browser to block pop-ups.

Or... as you suggest something I had in my system for awhile and like a time-bomb, raised its ugly head.

All's well... that ends well.
 

TUGBrian

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indeed, pop up blockers should be enabled by default. I havent encountered a useful pop up in many...many years!
 

VacationForever

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Pop up blockers will work on wbsites trying to pop up something that you don't want. But if you clicked on a link or have a malware running, the pop up blcker won't recognize those as illegitimate. It will simply treat it that it is a an application that you ran.
 
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