Mac Tech Scam

Hi everyone,

One of my family members called what they thought was Apple Care last night - but they and searched for the Apple number on Bing, and clicked the link on the top search result. It turns out they called scammers posing as Mac - unfortunately, they gave control of their MBP to the scammers. The scammers told him that the Mac had serious issues and that for $500 they could fix it. My family member hung up. So I am hoping that the End Game was just to get the $500. However, I am also concerned that since they had open access to his MBP, what else did they do? I have had them disconnect from WiFi and shut the MBP off (but that is 36 hours later after I found out). We have changed passwords on critical sites and the MBP itself, as well as the router. Any other suggestions?

I plan to wipe my family members MBP and reinstate from a recent Time Machine Backup since I am concerned that perhaps malware (keystroke logger, etc) was also installed as part of the scam. If I do that erase and re-install, would that wipe out any malware?

I called the real Apple Care today and they said they unfortunately they have heard of numerous customers hit by this scam. They felt that a wiping and re-install would do the trick to ensure no malware is there - but wanted to pick some brains here as well...

Thanks for any input/advice or suggestions! I appreciate it...

I think you're on the right track. They may not have installed a key logger but I'm sure you don't want to take that chance. Restoring from a Time Machine backup should be fine. Just make sure to choose a date from before they got the phone call.

Perfect - thanks!