Despite the joint efforts of the IT community and law enforcement, the numbers say Windows tech support scams are still on the rise. According to Forbes, last year Microsoft received 153000 reports from Windows users in 183 countries, a 24% increase compared to 2016. On the other hand, only 15% confirmed losing money as a result of scam, which proves that all of the efforts haven’t been in vain.
As a global remote support software vendor, we make security one of our top priorities, which means doing as much as we can to keep both end-users and our customers safe from any kinds of malicious or fraudulent activities.
Some time ago we shared our experience in fighting “tech support” scammers and also published a detailed guide on how to protect yourself against online and tech support fraud.
Today, we’d like to share another success story and take this as an opportunity to say thank you to all those IT pros who’ve helped us expose scammers to the public over the last few years.
Recently a user received a call from yet another “tech support” company claiming their email was compromised and there were multiple errors in the system. The user was asked to run FixMe.IT to allow remote connection. Once connected, the caller downloaded and installed Supremo on their machine. Luckily, the user turned out to be an experienced IT pro, who immediately got the scammer on the hook and provided us with all of the connection details.
Based on the information we got from the user, we reviewed our logs and found that the connection was initiated by an India-based “tech support” company operating under the names of Quick Resolve (http://www.quickresolve.net) and Wavene Infotech (http://waveneinfotech.net/).
As a result of the investigation, we suspended all of the accounts associated with these companies due to violation of our Terms of Services, which strictly prohibit the use of FixMe.IT for fraudulent purposes. We also forwarded information about these companies to relevant law enforcement authorities so that they can take further action.
Once again, we’d like to thank the user for cooperation and kindly remind all others that remote support tools, such as FixMe.IT, are not to be confused with “tech support” scammers that abuse this type of software for financial gain.
If you happen to receive a scam call and you’re asked to run our application to allow remote connection to your PC, please contact the FixMe.IT support team right away and provide your IP address and/or the caller’s phone number. This will help us identify the scammer through our logs and shut down their account immediately.
Visit our website to learn more about the FixMe.IT remote support application and follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to get all the latest news and updates as they happen.