Wednesday, May 28, 2014

FTC Response to Microsoft Support Scam

RE:  Phone calls from "microsoft" saying that there is a problem/infection/whatever with your computer and offering to fix the problem by logging on to your computer
Result:  If you fall for this, they will charge  $$$, get your credit card info, potentially extract all user ids and passwords from your computer, (even though you might think they were safe), and, in the worst case, if you are uncooperative, trash your computer, potentially destroying your hardware.

The FTC suggests going to this page:  http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams
There is a "scam alerts" object on the left side of this page to see the latest. (I understand that this and other FTC pages can change frequently, so the scam alerts object might move to another place.  In your browser, search for FTC {put scam type here} and make sure you go to an ftc.gov site and not a scam site.

By the way, the phone numbers the scammers use.  The FTC rep I talked to said the numbers are related to "burner phones" and can't be traced.


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