Windows Technical Support Scammers Target Small Businesses

I have long since stopped being surprised by very intelligent and articulate members of our community who get caught out by scammers.

Scammers are the scourge of today’s society using both telephone, emails and fake websites to make you believe you should engage with them and part with your hard earned cash.

 

What is I believe to be new is they appear to be targeting small businesses. Business who they think may not have an IT support provider to call on for help and advice.

 

One of our clients has just recently been targeted and referred it straight back to us. What was surprising was the persistence of the person on the other end of the phone as he called back once he was told they had no interest saying “don’t you want your computer fixed?”. Not surprisingly they didn’t want to talk to us.

 

They will use tactics to entice you to believe they are from Microsoft such as;-

  • Windows Helpdesk
  • Windows Service Centre
  • Microsoft Tech Support
  • Microsoft Support
  • Windows Technical Department Support Group
  • Microsoft Research and Development Team (Microsoft R & D Team)
  • Or maybe just say that they are “Microsoft Certified”.

They are all claims to imply you are speaking to Microsoft, you are not, Microsoft do not make such calls or rather very rarely and they are more than happy to be verified by ourselves. They may go on to say the Internet Service Provider (ISP) you use has told them your PC is sending out lots of viruses and they need to get onto your PC to cure the problem. Internet service providers do not contact anybody or even act themselves on a PC sending out Viruses. With the amount of virus flying around this world they would have to double their staff if they were to do that. Or that a PC does have some kind of bug that need fixing. You will note that they will use generic terms such as ISP, they will not know who your ISP is, if they do it would be a guess and they will not know any specific account information that you have.

 

They will ask you to download software from them or a website to “just to check”. They will try to convince you by saying this software a free tool and everybody uses it, it will detect if you have a virus or that something is wrong with your computer etc. They may even point you to a legitimate website to download it from. Do not. Do not engage with them, do not pay them any money, do not give them credit card details or buy anything from them.

 

If you have already done this, first please do not be embarrassed. You are not the only one. What to do next is to change your passwords on your computer and any financial website. You will need to scan the PC that you let them onto for malware and viruses. You may need to contact your bank specific to the card you used.

 

It is suggested that you should report this to Action Fraudhowever in the past when I have called them they are only interested if an actual fraud has taken place. And sadly they are just recording it and building up data.

Another suggestion is that you contact the Telephone preference service With a business that wants customers to find them this may be counterproductive to your business.

 

For more information on what Microsoft suggests please visit Avoid tech support phone scams

 

We are here to help, if you feel you have been scammed please call us we will help, but we do charge for work carried out.