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A friend of mine called me in panic mode to tell me that "a message told her her computer was infected, and that she should call the phone number". So did she. Apparently, a lady made her install Team Viewer and did stuff on her computer, during something like one hour. My friend is using a mac, but I have no idea which one. And I have no idea what the "support lady" did exactly. My apologies, as I don't have much details.

I told her to:

  1. Disconnect the now most certainly infected mac from her network
  2. Stop using it until it has been completely reinstalled.

My question is : is there anything else than formatting and reinstalling that can reasonably be done in such case?

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That depends on what she did

I know you don't have more information, so I'll just just briefly go over what steps you should do in the future:

  • Obviously re-install the OS completely. If you have backups of files in some device that was not attached during the infection, you can recover the files from there. If the device was attached, it is a greater risk.
  • Monitor her credit card statements closely. A lot of scammers who try the tech support scam try to get people to buy overprized hard- or software from them, often via credit card. If she gave out her credit card details to the scammers, then she should contact her credit card fraud hotline, explain the situation and ask for their advice.
  • If she gave out personally identifiable information, she may be subject to identity theft. I don't know what to do in that situation, but this website of the US government covers the topic.
  • Speak with her about tech support scams and scams in general. We all fall for scams at times, but it's important to learn from our mistakes.
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