According to the Global Tech Support Scam report by Microsoft, consumers have reduced their exposure and losses from scam activities due to increased use of ad blockers along with continuous efforts made by both software vendors and authorities to raise awareness and fight online fraud.
Microsoft researchers say 63 percent of consumers experienced a tech support scam in 2018, down from 68 percent in 2016. At the same time, the percentage of respondents who lost money from a technical support scam decreased from 9 percent to 6 percent in 2018. This means that more consumers were able to either identify a scam and ignore it, or completely avoid being scammed.
The US has made the biggest improvement over the last four years and was the ‘greatest success story’ in 2018, according to Microsoft. In the US, 6 percent of consumers reported money losses as a result of tech support scams in 2018, a dramatic drop from 21 percent in 2016. The percentage of those who avoided scams completely was up 12 points in 2018, which means that more people managed to identify scammers and decided not to interact with them.
The main types of remote tech support scams remained the same last year. However, there was a notable decrease in each major scam activity*:
- Cold calls (40 percent, down from 42 percent in 2016)
- Misleading website redirects (41 percent, down from 48 percent in 2016)
- Phishing emails (37 percent, down from 48 percent in 2016)
- Browser pop-ups (50 percent, down 10 points)
*U.S. data
Tech support scams in 2020
Microsoft’s research data shows that consumers have become more educated about tech support scams and more skeptical about unsolicited calls and suspicious-looking emails. All this indicates that the percentage of exposure and money losses from scam activities will drop again in 2020 provided that technology vendors and legitimate tech support businesses continue their educational efforts to raise awareness among users.
How to protect yourself against tech support scams
Usually this starts with a call regarding your computer, and fake IT helpdesk specialists can do their best to sound convincing: “I’m from Microsoft/another well-known tech company”, “you’ve been infected with malware”, “the cleanup with cost you $n”, “you may talk to our level-three supervisor to get a discount”, etc.
Warning signs to look for
- Calls from nowhere: If you get a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from Microsoft or Google. Microsoft has promised: “You will never receive a legitimate call from Microsoft or our partners to charge you for computer fixes.”
- Caller ID that looks a little bit TOO legitimate: Scammers know that this is the first thing you’ll look for. It’s easy to hide their actual phone number, so ignore what the Caller ID says. Same thing if someone were to show up on your doorstep with a bogus ID badge.
- Scaring you into action: In order to get you to blindly agree to their “help”, scammers will scare you with all sorts of frightening tales about your computer. They will tell you that your computer has malware or a virus that it is spreading to other computers.
- Talking you into installing software: The scammers’ main goal is to get you to install some remote access software so that they can log in directly to your computer in the future. The software may even be from a legitimate company, but in the wrong hands they will have access to your personal data.
Don’ts
- Don’t buy it. If you see any suspicious pop-ups on your computer screen, don’t click on them. If you get a call from a supposed tech support specialist, don’t trust them until you verify that the business they represent is actually legit.
- Don’t search for a third-party support firm on the web. Both software and hardware vendors usually have official tech support contractors that can be trusted. And who knows what you can stumble upon by simple googling “computer tech support”.
- Don’t store private data on your machine. Never give out any personal information over the phone/email to a tech support company you can’t verify. Don’t store any private data like credit card numbers or passport information on your computer.
- Don’t let those who you don’t know or trust to gain remote control over your computer.
- Don’t confuse tech scammers with real IT support services or remote desktop software vendors such as Techinline FixMe.IT. If you get a scam call from a company that you feel is misrepresenting itself as a software vendor, try to obtain as much information as possible and report it to the vendor.
Do’s
- Install an antivirus program and keep it updated.
- Take measures immediately. If you realize that you’ve let an untrustworthy company remotely connect to your computer, perform a full virus cleanup on your machine, as it might get infected with malware, and get in touch with a tech support firm you can trust.
- Be investigative. If you get a scam call, you can do a lot to help software providers punish the fraudsters. Ask for the supposed agent’s name, employee ID, google their website/phone number on the web, as there’s always a chance that this “tech support company” has already been reported by other users.
- Report, report, and report. Don’t just post questions to Reddit/Quora. Other Internet users might help with a piece of advice, yet they don’t have the resources to stop scammers from doing what they’re doing. Instead, get help from software vendors that are being misrepresented.
If you get a scam call from a “support technician” telling you that your PC is infected and asking to run FixMe.IT in your browser, try to get as much information as possible and then contact the Techinline FixMe.IT team directly at [email protected] or leave us a message on Facebook or Twitter. We will immediately take actions against scammers, as our Terms of Services prohibit the use of FixMe.IT for the purpose of misleading or misinforming end users for financial gain.
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