Need help confirming SCAM and advice on cleaning machine

[vahju]

I know there are a lot advanced computer users on this forum so hopefully you can give me some advice.

Father-in-law told me today he took care of a nasty virus/hack that hit his machine that caused an alarm in my head because he is not very computer handy. He told me he got a pop up notification from Microsoft on his new Win8 laptop that his machine was under attack and to call a 855 number for assistance. He was so concerned he called the number, they talked him into giving remote access to his machine, and signed up for some kind of 2 year support ($89.99). He mentioned the person had an India accent, and was very friendly and helpful. The company name is Global Access Technical Support and the phone numbers are 1-855-810-3596 and 1-855-491-2541. He even was able to print out a 5 page contract which looked official but to me screams internet scam.

I did some web searches for Global Access Technical Support as soon as I came home and nothing scam related came up. There is a website with the exact name no spaces and they appear to be a technical support company. When searching on the phone numbers the first showed up on a potential scam site for legal issues but that was a couple of years old.

I am having my father-in-law call into his credit card company he used and get a new card with a new number and security code and is going to look for any unusual activity. Since these hackers actual got remote access to the machine (not sure how long they had access) what tools would you suggest to clean the box. The system right now is a Win8 machine with out of the box software using Microsoft built-in Anti-virus. I remember him telling me a while back he bought it from Best Buy so I doubt he has system restore disc.

My thought is that this is a scam. No software support company is going to proactively send you a popup on your machine to tell you your getting hacked and to call their support line for assistance.

Any advice on how to clean this machine and recommendations on anti-virus software would be appreciated.

[joedf]

Woah ok.... No. That don't feel right.
Reinstall win8, just to be safe... Well ok reinstalling win8 might be a little bit extreme ...

[nnnik]

i think you can reset it without any Data loss.
(However you will loose all of your installed Programs)

[joedf]

(excluding that data loss... Lol)

[vahju]

I think reloading Win8 is going to be best choice but the problem is I don't think he has the system discs.

[nnnik]

You can luckily do it without system disks (also meaning that it isn't perfectly safe)
EDIT:You need to press Win+w and then search for system and then something like extended system options.

[Gio]

My thought is that this is a scam. No software support company is going to proactively send you a popup on your machine to tell you your getting hacked and to call their support line for assistance.

And your reasoning is just fine.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/regulators ... operation/

Any advice on how to clean this machine and recommendations on anti-virus software would be appreciated.

When a tech-aware scammer has had access to your system (and probably with admin privileges), there is no telling on what he/she may have done. It is an entirely different situation, it's not as if it were a mere virus attack. You can try a System Restore, or if you wish to be on an even safer side, reinstall windows and back up only the files that you know are essential for that PCs users (mostly text files, images and videos - no executables or downloadable stuff).

Who knows if your stepfather may one day decide to type in his credit card numbers to buy you those shiny new shoes on that online store?