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Tech support scams, which get people to pay for fake computer help or steal their personal information, are convincing. You might already know the signs of a tech support scam, but do your friends and family? Here’s what they need to know now:

  • Companies like Microsoft don’t call and ask for access to your computer. If you get a call like that, it’s a scam.

  • Real companies also won’t ask for your account passwords. Only scammers do.

  • Tech support scammers try to convince you they’re legitimate. They’ll pretend to know about a problem on your computer. They’ll ask you to open normal files that look alarming to make you think you need help.

  • If you do need computer help, go directly to a person, business, or website you know you can trust. General online searches are risky because they might pull up another scam.

If people you know were already scammed, here’s what to tell them:

  • If you paid with a credit or debit card, call your credit card company or bank immediately and tell them what happened.

  • If you paid with a gift card, contact the gift card company (iTunes, Amazon, etc.) ASAP to see if the funds are still on the card and can be frozen before it’s too late.

  • A tech support scammer who has access to your computer can install malware. Update your computer’s security software, scan your computer, and delete anything it identifies as a problem. Restart your computer to be sure the changes take effect. Going forward, download security updates as soon as they are available. Most operating systems have a setting to download and install security updates automatically. Use it. And install updates for your other software, including apps.

  • If the scammer got your password for a financial account, or a site like Amazon, change the password immediately. Contact the company directly to make sure nobody has broken into your account.

Report your experience to ftc.gov/complaint. You’re not alone, and reporting these scams helps law enforcement go after the people behind tech support scams.

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

jwick
April 27, 2020
The latest (april 2020) is a company called World Software Service represented by Jack Seveson and Rick Dawson. Send a notice to email address stating their "service" will be automaatically reinstated at a cost of $599. and is an automatic renewal. Never heard of these people, have no account with them. Seems they are trying to get you to call so they can give a sales pitch.... Stay clear of them
Julie
May 15, 2020
I paid 399.00dollars and I lost them. After 1 years I received email to renew my plan. I call them to get my money back bat I don't have a bank account anymore. I ask them to send me check . He said if I don't have a bank account he can send me tru western union but not 399.00 or 1000$ .so confused and very bad connection. His name is Jeffrey Wilson but indian man. Don't know what to do and how can I get my money back.
Puppylover12345
May 18, 2020
What if they are a scammer and they don’t do any of that?
GinaD3
May 30, 2020
I kept getting these random emails from Amazon saying that my debit card information on file needed to be updated because it was invalid. I found it kind of odd since I make frequent purchases on Amazon and the monies were taken out with no issues. So today I just decided to copy and paste the email that was supposed to be from Amazon and sure enough it's fraud. Guys be careful!
Rosie
June 29, 2020
My mother a call from 256-846-5927 about her computer system. When I called back they hung up.
Scammed in BV
July 30, 2020
Just got a call from a different number trying to renew my subscription for $399.00 again. This has been going on for two years now these guys call from different numbers all the time. There should be laws against this type of abuse.
LP
August 07, 2020
I saw a notification from geek squad through gmail thanking me for my payment. But when I opened gmail...there was nothing in gmail from them...anywhere in my inbox.
some1guy
August 27, 2020
I got a local call. Well, what seemed local, it just had the name of the county on my caller ID. I answered and the guy asked who the owner of the computer was, after I asked who he was he would not tell me. I asked a few more times who he was and then he just hung up. It didn't have a phone number on the I.D. although a number with local area code called earlier and hang up when I answered.
Apple Imposter
September 29, 2020
Received on my cell from 850-748-2858 "Call from Apple. We are getting suspicious activities detected on your iCloud account and security has been breached due to unauthorized log-in attempts. We strongly recommend. Please do not access your life financial information such as banking shopping on your devices for security reasons until your iCloud account will not get fixed. Press one to talk with Apple support. Thank you."
Larry Simpsonwhy
October 04, 2020
Why doesn't google, who wants to run or control all aspects of my cell phone have a fail safe built into its own security mechanisms to head off or kill instantly any sort of intrusion or virus or malware etc ,leaving it up to the user of his many apps and sales items to fend for himself worse yet suffer a hit such as you speak of them want to charge you for a magic wand or whatever to rid your deucce of the menace adding insult to injury threatening to shut off said device unless yousquash the monster that they allowed into start with ?
Trucker1968
October 10, 2020
I got a call today. And since I have other things going on. I've decided to not be afraid to answer the phone. I should have avoided this call. The number came up as a potential scam. Glad I hung up on them.
nguyen
November 16, 2020
I receive a call from a person stating they are from the Global Customer Assistant with Windows. They said my email and devices are being hacked through my IP address. They had my email address, my phone number, and name when they called. They provided me with a computer ID number that is being affected and wanted me to turn on my computer and check. I played along for a while to see what else they wanted but little did they know I don't have a windows device. I eventually called them out as scammers because I don't have a windows device so not sure why they are calling be on behalf of windows when I am not their customer to begin with. They then said have a good day and hung up.
sheesh
November 25, 2020
I received voicemail calls from a company called DMZ. They claimed they were a computer technical support company. They said they were going out of business and believed I had a refund due. I knew this was a scam. They left voicemails the next 2 days so I blocked their number. I believe I stopped them dead in their tracks!
Don't use your…
December 18, 2020
Please be aware of a company RESTORO. They promise a money back guarntee.Send a phone number for 5 minutes to ring. Then say they will call back. They provide a pin number after scanning the computer that is not acceptable, Then the process starts all over again and they try and take the money again. Wicked thing top do to pensioners.
Dawn
January 05, 2021
I can't believe in this day and age that this just happened to me--I know better. "Comcast" called me and said they needed to update some files and reload them because of various outages over the last couple of months. I obviously gave them access and the worst part is, I don't know what they did, removed, installed so I don't even know what to do. For the life of me, I couldn't recreate any of them actions they had me take because they were so fast. They seemed so legit even though I didn't feel right about it. The 1-800 number was a Comcast number (I googled it to confirm, but yes, I realize now, that was part if the scam too). The rep gave me her name, her employee number and then wanted to refund me two months of services for all the issues we've been experiencing. RED FLAG #1,731,240. The verification went on and then I was sent to another dept to credit my account. The man on the account seemed so legit--I told him that I did not feel good about this and every hair on the back of head was standing up and something wasn't right. He had every come back. The woman already asked me for my router #'s on the back of my unit--again, made it sound legit. Then I pulled up my Chase account and he said they were crediting me $550 and to watch for it....they wanted me to use my checking/savings but I told them that my checking/savings had zero to do with this because that's not how I pay my Comcast bill (this turned out to be my saving grace). He said he didn't think it would work with a credit card but we were going to try it. So I watched my available balance go from $15,750 to over $21,000. Oops. Mistake--they actually credited me $5,500 instead of $550. I knew I was being scammed at this point because I knew exactly what he was going to ask me to do next--yep! Send him back the overage of $5,000! Unfortunately for the scammers, they weren't able to do that with a credit card account that didn't have a checking/savings. I told him there was no way I was going to send him $5,000 and that this error was just to egregious. He said do you see your available balance now? I just changed it to $00 (I saw it go to zero) and I just took your $21,000 and hung up. I was shattered. I knew I had been scammed but I didn't know to what extent. I immediately unplugged my computer and router and called Chase Fraud dept. I spoke to an investigator and he told me I pretty much just saved $5,000 by not giving them access to my checking/savings account. He said to change the passwords to my accounts. He asked me what information I had given them and it was my address, the last four digits of my Chase Visa (you can see it on the website when you are logged in) and my router ID's. He told me even though I actually "saw" $5,500, it was just a mirror of my account so that it looked like it had been added (when in fact, nothing was actually added or changed/deleted). He said they would want me to believe $5,500 had been added and return $5,000, only to log on and see that nothing had been added--it was just the pretend screen they were mirroring to make it look like my account. I can't believe in this day and age that this happened to me, but it did. They sounded so legit--but never again. I will question everyone now and request to call them back to make sure it is legit and even then, dig deeper. I don't know what programs they may have added to my desktop. I don't know how to check for that. I could do a factory reboot, but I would probably lose so much that I don't know if I should go that route. I may call my router company tomorrow and ask them to send me a new ID/password to reset it. I just know the scammers have done other things because I watched them approve so many things (before I got suspicious). Don't trust anyone--especially if they are offering a refund. However that was not the reason they said they were calling in the beginning which was another professional scamming technique. Feeling quite silly....
My parents are…
January 08, 2021
My parents get this call at least three times a day, but using a spoofed phone number each time so it doesn't come up as spam. It'll be about computer service, computer coverage, internet service, and once or twice acting as known companies. I don't know what to do to help them, as there's nothing to report - the numbers the scammers use are the phone numbers of real people.
Dogvan
February 17, 2021
Received a call from Pennsylvania (484) 226-6249. The automated voice said my credit card had been charged $299.99 for computer warranty. It then asked me to press "2" on my cell phone to have the charge cancelled and cancel the warranty. I hung up at this point. I checked my card for activity and there was no related charge. I assume they caller would have asked for my card number and code to delete the charges.
zlloyd1
May 11, 2021
I got a call this afternoon, from a robot, telling me that money was about to be deducted from my bank account for tech support plan that I never signed up for. It said if I want to cancel I can go to a website, or press 1, so I pressed 1, and some guy with a thick accent answered, and I started to explain that I was not interested, and he hung up on me. So, I tried to call the number back, and got an answering machine that said the mailbox is full, and to try later. This is ridiculous, I kno0w I do not have any kind of paid technical support service, and I do not appreciate being hung up on, just because I am not falling for a scam!!