These days tech support scams are becoming more wide spread with unscrupulous types targeting innocent folk in a wide variety of manners. Whether it be fraudulent emails, fake websites or “technical support” phone calls, you need to be armed with the knowledge to stay safe.
Scams come in different “formats” – they may claim that you have a refund or payment due to you (e.g. tax refunds from IRD – a common one doing the rounds at the moment with a number of our clients we’ve spoken to). Fake, unexpected invoices are another fairly common occurrence, as are phishing scams that ask for credit card details.
So called “tech support” phone scams, often with the caller claiming to be from Microsoft, are rife. They might offer to help solve your computer problems or sell you some software to fix the problem (which never existed in the first place). Once they have access to your computer, they can do the following:
- Trick you into letting them take control of your computer, in order that they can install malicious software that could capture sensitive data, such as online banking user names and passwords. More than likely they will then charge you to remove this software.
- Request credit card information so they can bill you for phoney services.
- Send you to fraudulent websites and ask you to enter credit card and other personal or financial information.
Who They Might Say They Are
Different scammers use slightly different variations when it comes to the organisation they claim to be calling from. Here are some of the ones to watch out for:
- Microsoft Tech Support
- Microsoft Support
- Windows Technical Department Support Group
- Windows Helpdesk
- Windows Service Centre
- Microsoft Research and Development Team
How To Protect Yourself
Ideally, you never want to get to a stage where you have to act after the fact, but it’s also important to know what to do, and more importantly, what not to do, should you receive such a scam call:
- Don’t purchase any service or software.
- Ask if there is a fee or subscription associated with the service they are offering. If there is, hang up straight away.
- Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team who you are already a customer of.
- Never provide your credit card or another other financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft tech support.
What Action To Take If You Give Your Information To A Fraudulent Tech Support Individual
If, in the worst-case scenario, you fear that a scammer may have downloaded something malicious onto your computer, or if you are worried your personal information may have been compromised by a fraudulent tech scam call, here are some steps you should take immediately:
- Change your computer’s password
- Change passwords for any online banking or other financial accounts
- Change your email password
- Run an anti-virus or anti-malware scan. Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender pre-installed on any PC. For anti-malware software look no further than Malwarebytes which can be downloaded for free.
