How to deal with Tech Support Scams

How to deal with Tech Support Scams Now!

You get a pop-up message that says you’re infected and for you to call “Microsoft” Tech Support with the provided number, a voice may come from your speaker instructs you that your data is in harm’s way and you should not shut off your PC. In a panic, PC users call this number and long story short, end up paying hundreds of dollars to a scam artist that claimed to fix something that was never an issue to begin with. This story is common today if you read the news.

A tech support scam artist claims to be an employee (or work with) of a major software company offering technical support to the victim. This can range from someone claiming to be your ISP, your cable provider, or even a Apple or Microsoft. The scam artist will claim the “company” has received notifications of errors, viruses, or issues from the victim’s PC. Scam artists are also claiming to work on behalf of the government to fight computer viruses and threats from enemy nations, hackers and terrorist organizations.

How they get you

Tech Support scam artists have a few tricks to try to extort you or scare you into paying them:

Cold Call. You’ll get a random call from the scammer who claims your PC is infected or has a serious error.

Pop-Up or Rogue Website. This is the more popular tactic where the victim will accidentally stumble upon a rogue website or receive a pop-up claiming you have a Windows OS Blue Screen Error, a massive data error, or a serious infection. Sometimes, it will lock your screen up and freeze your internet browser, or play a sound or voice over the speaker in an attempt to scare the victim. The pop-up or rogue website will always include the scam phone number for the victim to call.

Once you are speaking to them and letting them in

They will attempt to scare you further and instruct you to allow them to remote access your PC or devices to “fix” them. One they are in, they will claim they found the “errors” or “viruses” and ask you to pay for them to be removed, this usually amounts to hundreds of dollars. The money is collected from the victim usually by debit/credit card, wire transfer, or even prepaid gift carts!

If the tech support scammers are remotely accessing your devices, they can use this as a way to hold your information hostage and ransom you. They can intentionally install malware onto your PC, or steal your sensitive data on your PC such as passwords, financial accounts, and other data. There have been reports of the scammers becoming so agitated they have threatened to destroy the computer and all its data unless the victim pays on spot.

What can you do to stop them?

We at SUPERAntiSpyware recommend a few different forms of defense and mitigation against the plague of tech support scams:

Do NOT give out credit card or bank information.

Recognizing what is occurring and ending the call immediately if you are speaking to a tech support scammer.

Do not allow unknown and unverified organizations remote access your devices such as your phone or PC.

Make sure you are using the latest version of SUPERAntiSpyware and it is up to date.

If you see a pop-up or you stumble upon a rogue website that is claiming you are infected, have an error, or a Blue Screen of Death go ahead and close your web browser, if needed force it down via the Process Manager. If you cannot do that, reboot your machine.

If you are a victim

File a fraud report with your Bank or Card issuer immediately and stop payment, or see if you can dispute the payment if it has already been made.

File a Complaint with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center

Change your passwords to the services the tech support scam artists may have uncovered when they remote accessed your PC.

Remove any remote access software the scam artist may have had you install on your PC.

Our Top 5 Mozilla Firefox Extension Picks For Better Web Security

Top 5 Mozilla Firefox Extension Picks For Better Web Security

Security and privacy are some of the major concerns when using the internet. One of the more popular Open Source internet browsers Mozilla Firefox allows users to add extensions to the browser adding new functionality. Here are our picks for the top 5 Firefox security and privacy extensions that you should install for safer browsing along side using your SUPERAntiSpyware software on your PC.

Click on each link and it will bring you to the Firefox Extension website where you can learn more about the extension and its creators. Most of these extensions are available on other popular browsers, such as Google Chrome or Opera so do not feel limited to only Mozilla Firefox!

1) uBlock Origin – A lightweight ad-blocker and anti-tracking extension that is efficient on memory and CPU footprint.

2) Privacy Badger – Developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).  Privacy Badger is an anti-tracking extension that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from tracking where you go on the web. Privacy Badger Works great alongside uBlock Origin.

3) HTTPS Everywhere – Developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and The Tor Project. HTTPS Everywhere ensures that you always connect to a website using a secure HTTPS connection if one is available. HTTPS is a form of encryption making your browsing much more secure.

4) DuckDuckGo Plus – DuckDuckGo is the search engine that doesn’t track you. This add-on makes DuckDuckGo your default search engine and includes some other useful features.

5) NoScript Security Suite – Preemptive approach to prevent security vulnerabilities out on the web. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from sites you trust, guarding your trusted sites against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS), cross-zone DNS rebinding / CSRF attacks (router hacking), and Clickjacking attempts.

Do you have any Mozilla Firefox extension recommendations? Feel free to leave a comment below!

SUPERAntiSpyware Team