Tech Support Scams Dramatically Increasing

Tech support scams in which consumers are tricked by scammers into believing there is a problem with their computers that require the expensive services of scammers posing as customer support employees for the major tech companies constitute a major problem. According to the FBI Losses attributable to tech support scams in 2024 were a whopping $1.464 billion which is $500 million more than 2023 losses and an 87% increase from 2022.

While we often think that it is aging baby boomers who are most susceptible to tech support scams, a report by Microsoft about tech support scams found that Millennials and Gen Z were victimized more by these scams than any other demographic group.

The most common tech support scams start with pop-ups on your computer that provide phony notices of security problems. The pop-ups generally contain a telephone number for you to call to fix the problem. Often when this scam starts with a pop-up on your computer, your computer screen freezes. The pop-up warns you that you should not shut down or restart your computer because, they tell you, it would cause serious damage to your computer

Neither Apple nor Microsoft nor any of the other tech companies ever provide pop-up notices of security problems that contain telephone numbers for you to call to fix the problem. If your screen becomes frozen, all you need to do is just turn off your computer and restart it. Whenever you get a pop-up, email, or text message that appears to tell you that you have a security problem with your computer, you should never click on any links contained in the message or call the telephone number provided. If you are concerned that you may be experiencing a real security problem, you can contact the real tech support at Apple at 1-800-275-2273 or Microsoft at 1-800-642-7676 .

If you call the scammers in response to concerns about your security, they often ask you to enable them to get remote access to your computer to assess the problem. Providing remote access to anyone to your computer can lead to a myriad of problems including identity theft and the downloading of ransomware. Neither AOL, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft or any of the other tech companies ever ask for remote access to your computer to fix problems.

Tech support scams also are perpetrated through phone calls in which you are told that there is a problem with your computer and you need to make a payment to remedy the problem. In the tech support phone scams, it is important to remember that neither Microsoft nor Apple will ever call you about a technical problem so if someone represents that they are doing just that, it is a scam. Hang up the phone.

Recently, a man in Waltham, Massachusetts received such a phone call purportedly from Apple Customer Support telling him that his computer was infected with a virus and he needed to send $12,000 through a cryptocurrency ATM to pay for the cost of remedying the problem.

Fortunately, Dan Collins,an off-duty police officer witnessed the man talking on his phone approaching a cryptocurrency ATM carrying $12,000 in cash. Officer Collins identified himself as a police officer and convinced the targeted scam victim that it was all a scam thereby saving him the money he was about to send to the scammer.

When the tech support scam starts with a telephone call it is important to remember that through a technique called “spoofing” scammers can manipulate your Caller ID to make the call appear to come from Apple or some other tech company

Another red flag for many different scams is that anytime you are told purportedly by a company or government agency to make a payment through a cryptocurrency ATM, it is a scam. No company or government agency requires payment through cryptocurrencies.