Locked out of Windows 10 after scam call

[pcpaul]

Hi,
My mates dad allowed a telephone scammer to take control of his laptop but he stopped short of giving any card/bank details.
Unfortunately when he went to restart the laptop he now gets a user profile “Microsoft Blocked” with a pin/password box.
Is there any way I can circumvent this to get his user profile back without having to wipe everything and re-install?

Thank you

[veeg]

Hello

I would not have this laptop,still connected to the internet for sure. Until that issue is resolved..

[pcpaul]

Hello

I would not have this laptop,still connected to the internet for sure. Until that issue is resolved..

Yes, I’ve brought it home to try to get help.
I’ve used Hirens to see the users in the C: drive and weirdly this “Microsoft Blocked” isnt there so I’ve no idea what they did

[Bruce]

if they used the old trick of running the MS inbuilt SYSKEY program (now defunct) you really only have the option to reload Windows.

can you get into Safe Mode?
what is the OS?

not that it really matters, someone had full control of the PC, did at least one security change to block you out - that you know of.

I’d have no faith that they didn’t leave a whole bunch of malware behind, even ransomware and encry[pted all your files. I’d want to fresh install Windows just to be sure.

[pcpaul]

Can’t get into safe mode because it still needs a password, it’s like he set up a new user profile called “Microsoft Blocked” and needs a password or pin just like a normal log on (even has a password hint which is his name/alias). Yet when I look in the “User” folder there isn’t such an account.
I’ve managed to copy the photos and documents to a usb memory drive so I think I should be able to do a clean install but would have liked to find a way round the scam just as you lol

[Bruce]

the name shown on the login screen doesn’t have to match the list of users under Users.
for example, make an account for Elvis and when he logs in, it’ll create a Elvis folder under Users.
go into Control Panel and change the account name to God and reboot.
the login screen will now show God but his Docs, Pics, Downloads etc folders will still be under Elvis.

I hope you scanned those files you copied off just to be safe.

it all depends on what the guy has done, but you could try logging ion as Administrator if you know the password and he hasn’t changed it - but let’s be honest - he knew enough to do what he did, what are the chances he missed some obvious loophole like that?

that’s why I would bite the bullet and reload from scratch - life’s too short, build a bridge and move on.
nice to know what he did but chances are excellant (if he was remotely competent) that you never will.

[pcpaul]

the name shown on the login screen doesn’t have to match the list of users under Users.
for example, make an account for Elvis and when he logs in, it’ll create a Elvis folder under Users.
go into Control Panel and change the account name to God and reboot.
the login screen will now show God but his Docs, Pics, Downloads etc folders will still be under Elvis.

I hope you scanned those files you copied off just to be safe.

it all depends on what the guy has done, but you could try logging ion as Administrator if you know the password and he hasn’t changed it - but let’s be honest - he knew enough to do what he did, what are the chances he missed some obvious loophole like that?

that’s why I would bite the bullet and reload from scratch - life’s too short, build a bridge and move on.
nice to know what he did but chances are excellant (if he was remotely competent) that you never will.

Yes, I’ll attempt a clean install today.

[pcpaul]

Thanks guys, hopefully I can clear it up from here

[Bruce]

keep us updated and good luck.

[pcpaul]

keep us updated and good luck.

Re-installed Windows 10 from Microsoft media creation tool, all good.

Thanks for the advice guys