Someone called me from California and was telling me that someone from my company was calling them and reqeusting access to their computer and payment. I told them this was just a scam and not to do it.
I get people falling for several variations of Geeksquad and EasyTech all the time. Many people don't realize this isn't the real deal and fall for this, thinking they are using a legit service.
Conor
I have been SWAMPED with customers falling for tech support scams. A few wouldn't pay so the scammers erased their data and then initiated a hard drive defragmentation so we know where that ended up....
Anyway, has everyone else in the business been seeing a major uptick in these scams? The average victim that I see pays out about $1000 or so before realizing something is wrong and calling me. They pay out the most the first time. That is usually in the $350-500 range. Then they call back a couple weeks later and request $150-200 more to fix another "problem". Then that happens once again and then again.....
For those who don't know what a tech support scam is, it is basically a scammer who convinces a computer user that there is a problem with their computer. They request access to the computer to "fix" a nonexistent problem and then once they have access, they request money or else.... They may call you and claim to be from Microsoft, Google, or some other tech company. Then they may pop up a message and lock your browser. They have a sense of urgency and tell you DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER but that is the best thing you can do if you don't know how to end the task. They tell you to call a phone number displayed as well. If you call that phone number and give them access, then you are done for! Another trick is when someone goes out and looks up support for anything from their printer to internet service provider. Most searches for something like "HP Support" will bring up more fake sites that closely resemble the real deal than the real deal itself! Then someone installs a "driver" or calls the number displayed. They think it is a reputable company so they give them access to their computer, then the request $400 to setup their $100 printer!
The average cost of these scams is usually around $1000. I have seen as little as $69 and as much as $16,000.
I started to see a big uptick in these scams sometime last fall. I realized it was a major problem so started changing my marketing to focus on the problem. I created a radio commercial focusing on these scams and then was interviewed by a newspaper reporter from a couple of the local papers. I was on the front page of two different area newspapers.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1xj8oxm24qe7shn/A1%20WARNING.mp3?dl=0
http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/news/20180308/keeping-computer-conscious
I have to laugh about the 40 hour week comment in that article though.
Now I am just swamped with fixing the problems caused by these scams. 80-90% of my workload during a typical week is dealing with these scams. People fall for them and are paying them good money so they apparently work and this is just encouraging the scammers even more. The problem is that the money is gone once it goes overseas and law enforcement cannot do anything because the crime is international and this isn't considered big fish compared to child porn and such.
Has anyone else seen this sudden and seemingly exponential increase in these types of scams? Searches online return countless articles talking about these types of scams. Microsoft, HP, and others have articles/pages dedicated to explaining these and how they work.
Conor

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