Tech Support Call Scams

Joe
March 28, 2019

It is time to take a moment for a good old fashion Public Service Announcement. The New York Times posted an article a while back about fake tech support scams. These are not new and something we, here at QCTechJunkie, have been very much aware of. But, the article in The New York Times did provide some very interesting insights into the evolution of fake tech support scams. We strongly suggest you take a moment to read it. If you are pressed for time, here's are basic run down of fake tech support scams:

The "Classic" Routine

Everyone has experienced this routine. A window pops up onto your computer screen, usually while browsing the web. The screen tells you that your computer is infected and offers up some technical support to help resolve the issue, "just click here."

Over time this routine has evolved into various other routines. A chat window on a web page, an email, a phone call, a text message, and the list goes on. Everyone has or will experience one of these "alerts." We are here to tell you that 99% of the time, there is nothing wrong with your computer. Customer support or technical support will never, ever, call/email/text/pop-up you first. They will only contact you once you have contacted them first.

tech support scam message box 2
Image: Microsoft

Take a moment to think about it, please. For example, Microsoft and Apple are huge companies with millions of customers. There is no financially sound, ethical, and, most likely, legal solution to monitor, report, and resolve issues of each individual customer's device. It is just just not possible. If something is wrong with your device, you will most likely know. And if you want help, then you will have to do the work to get help. Calling tech support, waiting on hold, explain the issue, explain your troubleshooting steps, and work through their troubleshooting steps.

Take the above photo from Microsoft. The scammer cannot even take the time to imitate Microsoft properly. It's a generic windows with a ton of "Scary" sounding words. That's a big red flag all in it's own.

What to should you do?

This is the most simple section for us to write... Just ignore it. Mark the emails as spam so it get's reported. Also, ignore unknown number phone calls, delete unknown number text messages, close the browser tab, the list goes on. Doing nothing and ignoring them is the best thing to do.

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