Let’s be straightforward – “tech support” scammers can be a real pain in the ass. Scammers can lock out users’ machines and steal their private data. Scammers are the reason IT pros have to deal with too much suspicion on the client’s part when trying to provide remote technical assistance. Lastly, scammers can damage vendor’s reputation by using this or that product for fraudulent purposes.
Keeping our customers and average PC users safe from scams or any other threats is a priority for us at Techinline. Some time ago we published an article on how to spot typical tech support fraud, as well as shared our own experience in fighting “Microsoft support” scammers. Nevertheless, scammers are here to stay, at least for now. As we have thousands of users worldwide, it’s almost impossible to proactively identify which ones are using our product for unsolicited purposes. However, we’ll continue educating our users about “Microsoft support” scams to ensure that issues of this sort are on the decrease.
We’d like to share another real life story, and we do hope that this will help our customers, their clients, and other businesses fight back against “Microsoft support” scams.
Recently a user received a call from a supposed “tech support” company, claiming to be Microsoft. The user was asked to run Techinline FixMe.IT in their browser, install the application and provide remote access to their PC for purposes unknown. Luckily, the user turned out to be an experienced IT pro, who unmasked the fraudsters right away and decided to report their activity.
Based on the information we got from the user, we started an in-depth investigation of the issue. We have found that the phone number they we were contacted from (979-665-4848) is associated with similar reports of “Microsoft tech support” scams and listed as fraudulent on various websites. The number is registered in Freeport, Texas and belongs to a company under a name of Unification Technology.
Upon reviewing session logs we managed to find the company associated with the IP provided by the user that also matches the above mentioned number, yet bears a different name in our client records. As it turned out, this is an India-based business registered to somebody named Mirza Baig Sayeed, who had purchased five monthly FixMe.IT licenses to put their fraudulent schemes to commercial use.
We immediately discontinued all of their subscriptions, as our Terms of Services prohibit the use of FixMe.IT for the purpose of misleading or misinforming users for financial gain.
We’d like to remind once again that Techinline is the developer of FixMe.IT – a remote desktop solution that helps IT pros deliver technical support from the comfort of their office, and is by no means entitled for any other activities. In the meantime, Techinline itself does not provide any kind of remote support to average PC users.
Please don’t confuse FixMe.IT or any other remote desktop service with scammers who use this kind of software to access your computer for some sort of financial gain. Got a scam call from someone claiming to be from “Microsoft” and asking you to run FixMe.IT? Try to get as much information as possible and leave us a shout via Twitter. Together we can do more and save more people from being scammed.