We’ve had the opportunity to work with over 1200 people – helping them them with their computers via one-on-one via our Cloudeight Direct Computer Care service.
Remote tech support is a big business and there are many legitimate companies offering it – including our company. But there are a vast number of tech support scams out there and those in English-speaking countries are the targets.
We warn you again – NEVER believe someone who calls you out of the blue and claims they’re from Microsoft or someone who calls and tells you that your computer is infected and they can help you for a fee. NEVER give them any personal information — and above all NEVER let them connect to your computer. The average victim of these scams lost $875. You could buy a very nice new computer for that amount of money.
We’d like you all to read the following article because it will help you understand how these scammers operate and how they woo customers into believing them.
FTC cracks down on tech support scam run from India
The US Federal Trade Commission has carried out a huge international crackdown on a number of “tech support” scams being run out of India which have conned people in the UK, US, Canada and elsewhere out of millions of pounds since 2008.As explained by the Guardian in 2010, the scams used “boiler room” tactics, dialing through phone books for English-speaking countries. People who answered the phone were told the call came from Microsoft or their internet service provider, and that the person’s computer was “reporting viruses”. The caller would then perform an unnecessary “fix” on the computer and charge the person for it – and sometimes sign them up to multi-year “support” contracts. The cost could run to hundreds of pounds….
Thank you for bringing this to peoples attention again. Even some of those listed when you do a search are scam artists. We can’t be too cautious, especially as seniors because someone is always trying to scam us. Keep up the good work.