AAv3exe...

stevewestern · 10 May 2013

My old mum couldn't get into her yahoo email account so looked up yahoo helplines and ended up talking to a guy for 3 hours - seems he told her to download AAv3exe, remove avast and install sys sentry, and all for £170.

She was told she would be able to get back into her account after 24 hours.
I first heard about this after the 24 hours had elapsed so got her to call her credit card companies and bank, but now I want to know how to get AAv3exe off her pc, and if anyone has any advice about what to do now - can anyone help out ?

Sadly Mum is in her '80's, believes what anyone tells her and thought she was paying for a very good bit of software, not sys sentry which is a free download and AAv3exe which it seems no-one in their right mind would want to download.

Any thoughts - much appreciated as always, and if you can explain anything complicated in simple terms it might help, as I am a long way from Mums!

sep9001 · 10 May 2013

You could try system restore, once done download a free trial of kaspersky and run it on the PC.

neil_g · 10 May 2013

Use the logmein website to remote control her machine and fix it.

Download and run the usual malwarebytes and put avast back on.

Also remove her admin rights so installing stuff like this wont happen again..

Craft · 10 May 2013

Also get her to change her yahoo password and if shes got logins to other sites (banks ? paypal ? ebay ? readers digest ? whatever) get all those passwords changed too.

I'd also raise the £170 with the credit card company and see if you can get it back, its basically fraud.

+1 on stopping her downloading anything, if she has an issue get her to call you (or someone in the family). Never, ever buy anything over the phone.

Harriers9 · 10 May 2013

I'd also contact Yahoo direct and explain the situation. Just don't forget to mention that someone is using their Help section to defraud and rob innocent people.

I'm sure a court would say that Yahoo are responsible for what happens on their own website and if it was necessary would act appropriately.

Hint, hint

neil_g · 10 May 2013

Harriers9 said:
I'd also contact Yahoo direct and explain the situation. Just don't forget to mention that someone is using their Help section to defraud and rob innocent people.

I'm sure a court would say that Yahoo are responsible for what happens on their own website and if it was necessary would act appropriately.

Hint, hint

Assuming she ended up on yahoos site. I can't find any phone contact on yahoos site, it was probably a spoof page found via google.

Lyonspride · 10 May 2013

I've seen this sort of thing before, it starts with popup windows which scare the user into downloading dodgy software, this then buggars up the PC and starts popping up windows suggesting a number to call to fix it.
Person calls said number, pays a fee, they hit the credit card 2 or 3 times and the PC remains broken. The really gullible ones call back and get conned into paying even more.

It's all orchestrated by criminal gangs in Nigeria, Russia and China.

stevewestern · 11 May 2013

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions.
I'll talk to her shortly. I got her to change all her passwords bar the yahoo one as it has been changed as have her security questions.
It seems impossible to contact yahoo directly and her second email address has lapsed so they cannot verify that she is who she says she is..

Gr8Shot · 11 May 2013

It might be overkill, but personally I,d wipe her PC and reinstall os again, there could be root kits and all sorts installed now.
I'd change every password for email banks etc and contact the banks to inform them of the situation.

stevewestern · 12 May 2013

A little update - seems the credit card are going to look into it and sort out a refund though Mum has gone away for a week so it will have to happen after that. They are also keeping a watch on any usage....

I'll get her to send her laptop down to me and I'll do a fresh install. The desktop can wait till I am next visiting.
Seems her friend/neighbour (also an old lady) got taken for a lot of money recently via some computer scam.

Clearly she didn't go to a proper Yahoo site but some spoof page - something we all need to be more aware of I guess.
Thanks again for all the help given.

Lyonspride · 12 May 2013

stevewestern said:
Clearly she didn't go to a proper Yahoo site but some spoof page - something we all need to be more aware of I guess.
Thanks again for all the help given.

It probably took her to the dodgy site and she just assumed it to be genuine, typical scareware behaviour.