Guilford Police Warn of Tech Support Scams

From the Guilford Police Department:

Technical support scams are on the rise again and can cause some major financial headaches for victims.

Have you received a call from the FAKE representative, reporting himself or herself to be from Microsoft, who advised that your computer is infected with a virus? The representative is so helpful with assisting you in solving your problem.

But wait, you didn’t have a problem.

The representative advises you to log into a website on your computer and they will then remotely access your computer to “fix” the problem. While they are logged into your computer they do one or more things to hack your computer. They look for banking information, tax filing information, login passwords that are saved on your stored websites, such as your email and social networking sites, or they install a key-stroke virus on your computer so that they can watch you login to those password protected websites at a later date to obtain your passwords.

They are just so helpful when they steal all your information and use it or sell it to the highest identity theft purchaser.

Another technical support scam that is causing a large amount of financial hardship is the phony website scam. Have you ever typed in a website that you accidentally misspelled? Scammers are counting on you to do that and they purchase those websites to hack your computer. Once your computer loads to that website, an ominous alert pops up on you computer screen warning you to call a number to assist you in removing the virus just installed on your computer.

Don’t fall for it. It’s a scam. It’s just a new twist on the original scam.

No one gives anything away for free including virus protection and technical support. The most important thing to remember is legitimate technical support will never call you without you sending a request through your provider or you calling your service provider first.

If you have been victim to this type of scam, change all of your passwords and install legitimate virus protection on your computer. If it is possible that the scammers have gained access to your personal information, make sure to place a fraud alert on your social security number with one of the three major credit bureaus and with the various financial institutions you do business with.

For more information on these scams visit the following website from the Federal Trade Commission.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams