Sadly many of our customers have experienced some form of scam, mainly computer-related. Here are some of their stories.
We promise these are true stories.
We know what you’re thinking, there’s no way any reputable company is scamming people. And you’re right, well, not intentionally!
We met Vicky a savvy computer user and business owner. She bought a brand new PC and tried to install her antivirus program, unfortunately, she reached her 5 activation limit and had to call the company to remove an old device. After visiting the correct companies website and locating the correct number (we triple checked) she proceeded to ring her antivirus company. Like many large organisations, they operated a call centre. Vicky spoke with a call centre employee who told her she’d have to call another number to fix that particular problem, the number she was given was for a scam call centre. They proceeded to remotely access her computer and
Vicky with no reason to suspect foul play was scammed by remote access.
With bSafe anti-scam, you won’t be fooled or fall victim to scams.
With bSafe anti-scam, you won’t be fooled or fall victim to scams.
Anyone could fall for this scam.
We had a customer who read his cannon manual and it told him to visit www.canon.com/ijsetup. Rather than typing that address in the top URL address bar, he typed it into the search bar instead.
On a new browser window, the address bar is at the top of the window, the search bar is often found in the middle of the page.
Instead of going directly to the website they were provided with search results. They saw canon.com-ijsetup and without paying enough attention clicked the link. The dash should have been a forward slash.
The fake canon support website takes you to a search tool which when used quickly reports a system error and directs you to call them for support. This is the beginning of the remote access scam.
Unfortunately, he was remote accessed and help at ransom.
Just when you thought scammers couldn’t reach any greater depths. There’s nothing they won’t try.
We recently had a gentleman in his 80’s answer a home phone call, the scammer immediately accused him stating his IP address had been used to search for child pornography 5 times. He continued to tell the man he was a Microsoft technician and that he has to report this to cyber security providing a fake case number.
The gentleman panicked and of course argued his innocence. The moment panic was induced it was all over. Many studies show that when we panic we make really dumb decisions, the abusive attitudes from scammers is intentional and designed to make you panic.
After upsetting the gentleman the scammer then played good cop and said if the man was innocent he could log onto his computer and remove the issue. He accessed the computer with GoToAssist, the gentleman had all of his passwords stolen within seconds. In the end, he was charged $960USD for this “service”.
With bSafe anti-scam, you won’t be fooled or fall victim to scams.
Scam call centre photo’s credit Jim Browning.