Prospective customer attempts to pry for info

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Hello all. I had a guy call me today and explain to me that he was infected with the trojan "bamital n". He proceeded to tell me that he had ran several anti-malware scans on his computer...they would identify the trojan...but it kept coming back. Long story short he asked me to do some "research" and then call him back. Right away I was suspicious. I did a bit of googling on the trojan and called him back. What's funny is this guy actually asked me in a round about way what I use! Needless to say I did not tell him. I responded with "I have some very advanced tools for this sort of thing" or something to that nature...not exactly sure what I said. I am fairly sure this is a common thing as I have seen other people post about it on TN. I was thinking it would be nice to come up with a default answer to give people when it becomes apparent to me that they are simply trying to use me for info. Any suggestions? What do you do if/when this type of situation occurs? Thanks.

[FoolishTech]

Originally Posted by degresh

Hello all. I had a guy call me today and explain to me that he was infected with the trojan "bamital n". He proceeded to tell me that he had ran several anti-malware scans on his computer...they would identify the trojan...but it kept coming back. Long story short he asked me to do some "research" and then call him back. Right away I was suspicious. I did a bit of googling on the trojan and called him back. What's funny is this guy actually asked me in a round about way what I use! Needless to say I did not tell him. I responded with "I have some very advanced tools for this sort of thing" or something to that nature...not exactly sure what I said. I am fairly sure this is a common thing as I have seen other people post about it on TN. I was thinking it would be nice to come up with a default answer to give people when it becomes apparent to me that they are simply trying to use me for info. Any suggestions? What do you do if/when this type of situation occurs? Thanks.

I tell people a little bit of the truth: I use a custom application that I personally wrote to assist me in the manual removal of malware. My techs say that "we" use a custom application that "we" have designed in-house.

Granted that wouldn't work for everyone :P but if you do use D7, feel free to say that "we" (the royal "we") use a custom designed application that assists us in manual removal of said viruses/malware.

When/if client asks about the custom app, I say it is designed for experienced technicians to assist in manual removal, hence it isn't a "scanner" in the traditional sense and would do you no good without a highly technical background...

Now I used to just say I do the majority of the removal manually, following up with those scanner apps (that your customer may or may not be familiar with) to cleanup the leftovers. I'll explain if I have to why the majority of the scanner tools are ineffective without some prior manual intervention.

[PaulRome]

Tell them i do it manually, cause scanners are ineffective.

Best of luck

[phaZed]

I tell them the truth... There is no way of diagnosing the problem over the phone. Just because you have XYZ virus doesn't mean there isn't something else such as an exploit delivery package hiding on the system, and there moat likely is; most infections don't usually apply themselves in one step, but are built on exploit upon exploit. We have advanced removal tools specifically for this type of scenario, however, even automated tools may fail to remove all threats, in which case we have the knowledge and experience to remove them manually. When would you like to come by the shop?

That's how I handle it.

[RichmondTech]

Originally Posted by phaZed

I tell them the truth... There is no way of diagnosing the problem over the phone. Just because you have XYZ virus doesn't mean there isn't something else such as an exploit delivery package hiding on the system, and there moat likely is; most infections don't usually apply themselves in one step, but are built on exploit upon exploit. We have advanced removal tools specifically for this type of scenario, however, even automated tools may fail to remove all threats, in which case we have the knowledge and experience to remove them manually. When would you like to come by the shop?

That's how I handle it.

Exactly. There's no one size fits all solution. A tool you use in one scenario may not be effective in another. You need to look at the machine to determine what tools you need. That expertise is what people pay for.

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Originally Posted by phaZed

most infections don't usually apply themselves in one step, but are built on exploit upon exploit. We have advanced removal tools specifically for this type of scenario, however, even automated tools may fail to remove all threats, in which case we have the knowledge and experience to remove them manually.

That's how I handle it.

Well said. Thanks for the input. Truth is I don't want to assume someone is fishing for info and end up being a jerk...but I also don't want to spend my valuable time on the phone with someone who has no intentions of using my services in the first place. I will use something along the lines of what's quoted above to cut straight to the point. Much appreciated.

[Cornerstone Technologies]

These are those time wasters we all dread. I think you handled it just fine actually. No need to get rude, just adamant about not disclosing free help. As time goes on, you will develop a pretty accurate ability to detect these kinds of calls earlier and earlier. The knowledge is applicable to telemarketers and the like too.

I think your title of this thread is optimistic. There is no potential in these kinds of people.

[NETWizz]

I have always told them the truth... Then I tell them that tools like HiJackThis & AutoRuns in the wrong hands can cause more problems than they fix.

[Appleby]

Agree with all the advice given. When I'm in this situation, I don't even do any research. I just tell them I will be glad to do a virus removal for them and my fee is $XX. If they ask how or what I will use to remove it, I tell them I have alot of professional tools I use, plus alot of manual removal. End of story. If they persist, I tell them that I can't explain manual removal to them because it takes years of experience and learning. I'm not rude, but I make it pretty clear that I'm not going to tell him to download XYZ and it will fix his problem.

I don't have this issue much but when it does, it doesn't really matter what you tell them because these type of people are doing exactly what you think they are....fishing for free advice.

[1aComputerServices]

I use classified software and processes to remove your malware infection. If I tell you about them I will have to kill you.