It’s one of the oldest cons in the book: convincing a mark that they’re sick and then selling them a handy cure for the low, low price of “You just got ripped off.” Despite this sort of scam being perpetrated on the internet for years now, it’s still bamboozling lots of people, according to a recent court case brought by the FTC against a US-based company that has tricked computer users into purchasing millions in fake technical support to “fix” their computers. The scammers find their “marks” via fake pop-ups warning users that their computers are infected or performing poorly and provide a prominent phone number to call to receive tech support from a “certified” Microsoft or Apple partner (of which they are most definitely not). Once the victim calls, they are essentially tricked into believing they actually need support through carefully crafted application of legitimate tools and deceitful interpretation of events and warnings that are commonplace and not necessarily indicative of an actual problem. Once the scammers get your credit card or bank account info and get paid, they will deliver the service in the form of tech support “theatrics” which is more than likely just a script that looks impressive, but doesn’t actually do anything or might even damage your computer further. It’s also highly likely your payment info gets sold on the black market for additional profit.

Spread the word:

Clients of C2 Technology are typically savvy enough to spot this con a mile away, or at a minimum, have developed a healthy sense of skepticism to pick up the phone and call for a second opinion from someone they know and trust. It may not occur to you that, as a tech-savvy professional, you might actually be that trusted advisor for your family, friends and colleagues. Even if you don’t feel like a tech expert, you know enough to warn the people around you about these sort of scams, and you definitely know an expert who is always willing to take their call. At minimum, you should foster a healthy skepticism in the more naive or gullible loved ones, especially the ones that always seem to fall for the most obvious scams. This isn’t just for their benefit, it serves you as well. The more people around you who stay safe, the less likely you are to get infected. Thanksgiving dinners are a lot more enjoyable when you don’t have an family-spread malware infection on the table.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net