Posted on 05/27/2016 7:17:06 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Frank from the Computer Maintenance Department calls on regards to Lenny’s computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeOoUklWGiw
LOL
We do the same with NoMoRobo. We now get 2 - 4 junk calls per week (down from maybe 10 per day), but our Panasonic answering machine picks those up. I have the ringer turned off on the phone system for all but white-listed numbers, so the light on the phone flashes when a junk call comes in — but NO RINGER.
I also add those that get through NoMoRobo to the Panasonic phone for belt & suspenders. I just added 3 for the past week.
This really helped reclaim our sanity with our old landline number (which we switched from ATT / PacBell to Comcast a couple years ago).
The Washington State Attorney General has taken action and one major ‘Tech Support’ company from India with a HQ in New York. ‘Iyogi’
Washington State AG sues major tech support provider alleging deceptive scam
KOMO News ^ | December 16th 2015 | Connie Thompson
Posted on 12/24/2015, 3:05:18 PM by KeyLargo
State AG sues major tech support provider alleging deceptive scam By Connie Thompson Wednesday, December 16th 2015
State investigators just sued one of the rising stars in the tech-support industry claiming part of the operation is based on a scam. The company, called iYogi, is accused of tricking people into paying for tech support services they don’t need.
According to investigators iYogi engaged in a different twist on the notorious tech support scams where someone call you claiming your computer has problems. What’s significant in this case is workers don’t call you, you call them. And iYogi is one of the largest independent tech support providers in the world.
“Here’s essentially how their scam works,” said state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. “I’ll lay it out. First, they have online ads.”
In a news conference Wednesday afternoon Ferguson said iYogi uses online ads to associate itself with major computer companies like Microsoft, Apple and HP.
“When consumers call iYogi, the representative claims to provide tech support services on behalf of whatever company the customer inquires about,” said Ferguson.
After gaining access to the consumers computer Ferguson said iYogi installs diagnostic software known as scare ware, which falsely suggests there are problems. The diagnostic results show up on the consumer’s monitor.
“Once iYogi has alarmed the consumer, the representative proceeds to aggressively sell a tech support plan to fix these non-existent problems,” Ferguson explained.
State investigators say people paid as much as $540 for anti-virus software and long-term protection plans which were not necessary. According to the lawsuit some were even charged $80 to upgrade to Windows 10, a service Microsoft provides for free.
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3376462/posts?page=21
Burned By Too Many Scams, Microsoft Bans Tech Support Ads In Bing Search Results
Last December, Washington state filed suit against online tech support company iYogi, alleging deceived consumers by falsely claiming affiliation with Microsoft, HP, Apple, and others. Customers then paid iYogi between $80 and $199 to upgrade their systems from Windows 7 to Windows 10, for example, despite the fact that Microsoft explicitly offers all home Windows users that upgrade for free. The company also allegedly used their remote access to computers to generate fake, flashing warnings about viruses, before charging upwards of $380 to have the “virus” repaired.
The Bing ban on tech support ads comes the same week that Google announced a ban on search engine ads for payday lenders.
Unpaid salaries, pink slips: The story of lesser-known Indian BPOs
Sruthin Lal, Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Updated: Apr 18, 2016 08:17 IST
In December 2015, the Washington State Attorney General’s office sued iYogi, a technology support firm run by Indian-American Vishal Dhar, alleging that it used “deception and scare tactics to pressure consumers into buying un-needed tech support services”.
iYogi denies the charges, and is to respond to the attorney-general’s office.
New York-based iYogi has 4,000 employees and call centres in India and 10 other countries. But the company, which serves over 3-million customers, is facing financial troubles. Around 1,500 employees are said to have put in their papers after not receiving their salaries and allowances for months. iYogi, though, says the the number is much smaller.
“We have been writing emails to the CEO for months. But he is not responding,” says Vikas Dhall, a former employee. Dhall says he is to get around Rs 3 lakh from the company. Dhall’s concerns mirror those of most employees HT spoke to.
iYogi CEO Udayan Challu, however, says the company is in “a cash flow crisis” and a “difficult time in the business cycle”, and that it would get over soon.
In another instance, Zavier Nunees, an employee with Mumbai-based Teams Pvt Ltd, discovered one morning that his company, which offered technical services solution to customers in the US and UK, have shut down without any prior notice. Teams was yet to pay employees two months of their salaries .
“Most of us were undergraduates and freshers earning between Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000. We didn’t know what to do. Nobody responded to us. We went to the police. They told us to go to court. We could not afford to do that,” says a disgruntled Nunees. He moved on, so did all his former colleagues.
For Deepak Goel, an ex-employee of a call centre in Gurgaon, the problem was compounded by the fact that he was not issued a joining letter or a contract. He lost his job in October 2014 and he is yet to get his salary arrears from the company. “Whenever I asked the owner for my salary, he abused and harassed me,” says Goel.
“We stayed till we found the promises were fake,” says Naveen Mudgal, an employee who quit iYogi. “Our families landed in a serious financial trouble.”...
One friend’s husband in his waning years lost tens of thousands of dollars to scammers. Maybe as much as $100K.
I hope the real tech provider companies can figure out a way to ID calls from outside the US where most of these calls originate and where the scammers are untouchable legally. At least in the US, the govt could, if it chose, pursue them criminally.
I’ve played with the Indian microsoft scammers many times and took them all the way to the point where the wanted me to install team viewer then pulled the plug.
Last time I told the guy he sounded like a Paki and that I don’t talk to Pakis.
Next time I’m going to tell them I’m grilling a steak and discuss the differences between bleeding rare and medium rare.
>I live in an apartment complex and evidently have some neighbors with a sense of humor. <
The best one that shows up on my Wi-Fi search is “Bill Wi the Science Fi”. I chuckle every time I see it.
94-year-old Pearl Harbor veteran has life savings stolen by thieves
Friday, May 27th 2016
By Jared Dillingham
CHANDLER, AZ
VIDEO
Thieves stole the life savings of a Navy veteran, who survived Pearl Harbor and flew missions over both fronts during World War II.
“I’ve seen devastation I’ll never forget,” Jack Holder said of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, which he witnessed when he was 18.
Holder is now 94, and completely healthy.
He flew in the Battle of Midway, and later over the English Channel in a B-24.
Following a career in the Navy, Holder lived and worked all over the world in industries ranging from oil to the airlines to professional golf.
After all of his worldly experience, Holder cannot believe he fell victim to a common scam.
Someone claiming to be from the Publisher’s Clearing House called his home in Chandler and told him he’d won $4.7 million, and a new Mercedes Benz.
“I’d entered their drawings years ago, and they said they keep the entries for many years,” Holder said.
The scammers told Holder he had to pay taxes before he was given his prizes.
He and his fiancée, Ruth Calabro, wrote several checks, totaling $43,000.
When the thieves asked for another installment of $100 bills tucked into the pages of a magazine, they knew they’d been scammed.
My Father still believes these thieves. He still gets dozens of Letters in the Mail promising he Millions and he gets an occasional Phone Call as well.
I had no idea he was sending people like this Money until his Old Girlfriend mentioned it to me years ago.
He doesn’t have any more money to give them since I oversee his Finances now, but I’m sure he has given away thousands of Dollars over the past 15 Years or so.
These Vultures prey on the Elderly and even younger Ignorant People. It’s quite a profitable business.
On Your Side: Avoid tech support scams
Monday, May 30th 2016, 7:54 am CDT
By Ronda Robinson, Anchor/Reporter
-
It can be a scary scenario. Your computer screen suddenly vanishes and a blue screen appears with an error message or a phone number to call for tech support.
“It tells you to call an 800 number, tells you computer has been infected with a virus. Sometimes it will even be a computer generated voice message,” Todd Conn said.
.....
“The best thing to do if that comes up is to turn your computer off and back on. 9 times out of 10 your computer is never actually infected unless you give them access,” Conn said.
http://www.wtvm.com/story/32094586/on-your-side-avoid-tech-support-scams
They didn’t steal it.
He gave it to them.
The odd thing is that most of these scams are based on the mark’s greed. They promise big rewards and the mark loses all sense of scrutiny.
My aunt forgot to pay her credit cards and it saved her savings. She falls for all of these scams but has no way to pay them.
I agree totally ... they DO focus on the mark’s greed and make these huge, phony promises. My friend’s husband wanted her to put up their house so he could win the $30M or so they were offering. At least one in that couple had some sense. Tho, to be fair, I think he’d gone well into dementia at the time. And, if you do not produce what the scammers demand, they become VERY threatening. Some of the lowest of lowlifes on the planet.
One of my wife’s aunts lost everything to a Jamaican Lottery scam. They had people working inside the assisted living center so they knew how to threaten her. We found out after she died.
I see people falling for scams on Facebook all the time. All of the “Free Disney vacation, Free Macbook” type stuff are just scam operators. They follow through the shares and look for marks.
“You’ve won the free Disney vacation. We need a credit card number for the deposit which we will refund when you show up”.
Idiots.
FBI/Internet Crime Complaint Center offer some tools to battle e-mail, tech support fraudsters
Network World | Jun 2, 2016 10:14 AM PT
RELATED TOPICS
Security Mobile & Wireless Applications FBI
Not that summer time has anything to do with it but the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) warned that e-mail extortion campaigns and the tedious tech support scams have heated up in recent weeks.
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+More on Network World: FBI warning puts car hacking on bigger radar screen+
The IC3 said the recent uptick in email extortion comes from the data breaches at organizations like Ashley Madison, the IRS, Anthem and many others where tons personal information was stolen.
In the extortion e-mail scam, attempted victims are told that personal information, such as their name, phone number, address, credit card information, and other personal details, will be released to the recipient’s social media contacts, family, and friends if a ransom is not paid. The recipient is instructed to pay in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that provides a high degree of anonymity to the transactions. The recipients are typically given a short deadline. The ransom amount ranges from 2 to 5 bitcoins or approximately $250 to $1,200.
+More on Network World: FBI and IRS warn of pervasive, maddening business, consumer scams+
The IC3 offered the following examples of the extortion e-mails:
“Unfortunately your data was leaked in a recent corporate hack and I now have your information. I have also used your user profile to find your social media accounts. Using this I can now message all of your friends and family members.”
“If you would like to prevent me from sharing this information with your friends and family members (and perhaps even your employers too) then you need to send the specified bitcoin payment to the following address.”
“If you think this amount is too high, consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is. If you are already divorced then I suggest you think about how this information may impact any ongoing court proceedings. If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this information may affect your social standing amongst family and friends.”
“We have access to your Facebook page as well. If you would like to prevent me from sharing this dirt with all of your friends, family members, and spouse, then you need to send exactly 5 bitcoins to the following address.”
“We have some bad news and good news for you. First, the bad news, we have prepared a letter to be mailed to the following address that details all of your activities including your profile information, your login activity, and credit card transactions. Now for the good news, You can easily stop this letter from being mailed by sending 2 bitcoins to the following address.”
Read at: http://www.networkworld.com/article/3078165/security/fbi-extortion-e-mail-tech-support-scam-bags-turning-up-the-heat.html
Watching Out For Tech Support Scammers –FBI and IC3 Warn Online Users:
Jun 5, 2016 By Reem
One fine morning when your phone rings and you listen to heavily Indian accent telling you that The wants to provide you tech support, you know you are in trouble. This person is definitely someone who is located miles away from you, has no idea of what he is talking about and is definitely not the computer engineer he claims he is.He invariably tells you that your computer has been sending viruses and trojans over the network and he has been getting warnings of the same as he is from a government organisation. He asks you to turn on your computer give him the access for your device and then charges you for nothing but a few free software that he gets on the Internet and installed on your computer. That is house millions of people across the globe have got scammed and now that people have understood this and I are hanging up on phone calls that claim to provide technical support the people who are doing this have resorted to different means.
http://www.therem.org/watching-out-for-tech-support-scammers-fbi-and-ic3-warn-online-users/1235437/
It hasn't cut down on all of it, but most.
Fraudsters impersonate victims’ ISPs in new tech support scam
Suspicious ads help provide the scammers with all the info they need.
David Bisson | June 23, 2016 9:36 am | Filed under: Malware, Security threats
Tech support scams have been around for quite some time. As a result, it’s no surprise these these ruses are growing in number and sophistication.
A tech support scam used to only consist of unknown fraudsters messing around with fake anti-virus alerts, or cold-calling potential victims pretending to be Microsoft and offering to help with a virus infection.
Not anymore.
Resellers of legitimate computer security software have been getting caught up in the scamming game. Not only that, but some scams are leveraging advanced techniques like computer lock screens to trick unsuspecting users.
It would now appear scammers have added yet another tactic to get what they want: impersonating a victim’s Internet Service Provider (ISP).
This new tech support scam begins with a pop-up message that interrupts a user’s browsing session. The message appears to come from the victim’s ISP, with Malwarebytes having detected several messages that claimed to originate from several popular U.S., Canadian, and UK Internet Service Providers including AT&T, ComCast, and TalkTalk.
Read at:
https://www.grahamcluley.com/2016/06/fraudsters-impersonate-victims-isp-new-tech-support-scam/
I tell them that their security system must be really compromised because I don’t even have a computer.
Freegards
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