Technical support scam
A technical support scam is a form of telephone fraud that tricks people by pretending that they are a service which helps people fix their computers. In most cases they convince the victim they have a computer problem that does not actually exist.[1] A common type is when someone gets a call from someone (usually from places like India) pretending to be from a company that sounds real such as "Microsoft" or "Windows" support.[2] Often the caller tries to gain the victim's trust.[3] They may use confusing and very technical language to sound authentic. They may ask the victim to perform several tasks on their computer. Often they target legitimate files on the victim's computer saying these are viruses. These tactics are designed to scare people into letting the scammer fix the problem (that does not really exist).[3] The caller may have the victim install malicious software that could capture sensitive data, such as online banking passwords or credit card information.[4]
Technical Support Scam Media
Example of a technical support scam popup
A Recent Changes page from a MediaWiki site affected by technical support scammers promoting fake "help lines"
References
- ↑ Jérôme Segura (October 4, 2013). "Tech Support Scams – Help & Resource Page". Malwarebytes Corporation. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
- ↑ Charles Arthur (18 July 2010). "Virus phone scam being run from call centres in India". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Tech Support Scams". The Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Archived from the original on 31 October 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
- ↑ "Avoid tech support phone scams". Microsoft. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
