In the cyber world, it seems there's a scam around every virtual corner. Someone is either trying to steal your personal information, or they're more direct about going after your money. Now, there's another one to watch out for.
Your computer is acting sluggish, and you're not sure what's wrong. So you Google, let's say, Dell Support, or HP Support, and a list of choices -- all with toll free numbers -- pops up. You choose one, and talk with a tech support representative. John Dixon works for Computer Tree in Winston-Salem, a retail, training and service center for Apple computers. He says that friendly representative will likely ask you to go to a website, or ask you to download some software to help diagnose the problem.
“And then they can remotely control your computer," Dixon explains. "They can move the mouse, and you can see it moving in front of you and they have control of your computer at that point. Generally, what they do is say, ‘Oh, your computer is full of viruses, and you need to pay us X amount of money and we can clean it up for you. Please give us your credit card number.' And a lot of people end up doing that.”
Once you've given them your credit card number, how much is "X amount of money" likely to be?
“The number I've normally heard is about $400 to $500,” Dixon says. Yikes.
So is there any actual customer service involved, or do they just take the money and run? Well, it depends on whether you've called a scammer or somebody legitimate. Dixon says, “The problem is that there's legitimate companies that do this, that are third-party customer services, that do require payment and they go into your computer and actually help you. But a lot of times, usually when they say ‘oh you have a virus,' and you called in for something totally different, in most cases it's a scam, people still have the problem, and they never had a virus in the first place."
So when looking for tech support, it's important to make sure whoever you're dealing with is legitimate. But, Dixon says, there's a better way than that: Find tech support for the company that made the device that's giving you problems.
“The best way," according to Dixon, "Is to go to the actual company's website. From within the website find the support link, or ‘contact us' link. You need to find the phone number from within their actual website, because that would be an actual phone number.”
And one more thing: some computer users have reported receiving phone calls from people claiming to be from Microsoft, or another company, telling them their computer has a virus and again offering to fix it if they just give them a credit card number. Microsoft is not going to call you. You have to call them. That's guaranteed to be a scam.
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