About five years ago, I was having trouble with an expensive brand-name refrigerator that my wife and I had bought. It was a great refrigerator feature-wise. My wife and I initially loved it. But it kept breaking. And each break, even though it was covered by the warranty, took weeks and weeks to repair.
It was a pain to initiate each service call, it took days for a service technician to show up, and then it took weeks for the needed part to be shipped and arrive, and then another short wait followed by another visit by the tech to install. And most of the time, our refrigerator was unusable while waiting for the repair to happen.
This went on several times over a year. My beer was getting warm. Finally, when it broke again, I told the warranty person that I wanted a new refrigerator. I believed I had bought a dud. I did not trust it not to break down further and I was worried about additional issues after the warranty expired. I demanded a new refrigerator. They said no.
Out of frustration, I went to the vendor’s Facebook page. I left a public nasty note recounting my experience and asking for help. To my delight, I was quickly contacted by someone from the company’s “customer support program.” They apologized profusely and said a replacement refrigerator…a newer upgraded model even…was going to be shipped to me free of charge. I was pretty happy. It was all I had asked for.
They asked for the normal model and serial number information and my address, and then they asked me for my credit card information. They explained that this was to cover the cost of the old refrigerator if I failed to send it back within a month after I got the new one.
I cannot remember what happened or why, but in a short break in the communications, I decided to contact the normal warranty support phone number I had been calling. It was there that I learned there was no “customer support program” and there was no service ticket open for sending me a replacement refrigerator.
I had been had. Luckily, only by accident had I not given over my credit card information to the scammers.
When I looked back at the email communications, I saw the scammers were using a gmail.com address at the end of the [brandname]customersupport@ email address. The Facebook page they initially contacted me on was an exact duplicate of the legitimate vendor’s Facebook page where I had posted my original complaint, but it had a slightly different Facebook account address. I had been nearly scammed and just barely dodged a bullet. Lesson learned.
One of the most popular types of scams in the world is fake tech support scams. They have been happening long before the Internet was a thing…extended auto warranty, anyone.
But they have increased significantly because of the Internet. Here are some common examples to be aware of:
Poisoned Search Engine Results
The most common support scam comes from doing a simple Internet search for something, in particular, looking for the solution to a computer error of some type. The bad actors have “poisoned” popular Internet search engines so that simple error searches are highly likely to result in links to tech support scam pages being listed on the first page of results.
For example, if I type in almost any Windows error message into a search engine, such as ‘Windows Error 0x4455ff’, I’ll likely get back a link that does not take me to Microsoft or any support site that a legitimate PC repair person would want you going to. Here is an example of what I received recently when looking for a non-existent Windows error message (shown below):
The site may not be an outright support fraud, but the site definitely will not help you. This site and dozens of others you might see are just trying to trick you into installing truly unnecessary software that will not help you. Most security experts charitably call it pestware or something like that.
If you are looking for a solution to a software or hardware error, go to the vendor’s website for support.
Fraudulent Software Purchase Services
When you do go to the legitimate vendor’s website, try to type in the legitimate domain without searching for it, because again, Internet search engines are often poisoned with incorrect results. Here is what I got when I was searching on ’Norton antivirus installation’ (shown below):
Some of those links might actually get you to pay for and install a legitimate version of Norton Antivirus, but most likely it will cost you more and many are just outright scams. When I clicked on one of the links shown above, where I was taken was nowhere close to a legitimate website.
Instead, it took me to a fake Internet search engine website that looked like Google.com, but clearly was not Google.com. If I (or any user) did not notice the switch-a-roo, now every search I or they would type in would be under the control of a malicious party. Every new search would be an opportunity to sell you something you did not need or to install some software that would likely cause you more problems than solve.
Be aware that Internet search engine results can contain links that lead to bad places.
Fraudulent Phone Number Returns
Simple searches for legitimate vendor phone numbers can easily result in the wrong, scam numbers being returned in an Internet search (like shown below when someone was searching on a JetBlue support number [ignore the red slash]).
You really have to be careful when searching for vendor phone numbers on the web. I know a bunch of people who received scam emails asking the person to call a particular phone number, and when the person tries to verify if the phone number listed in the (scam) email is legitimate or not, the search engine tells them it is a legitimate phone number for the vendor.
If you are searching for a vendor’s tech support number, always go to the legitimate vendor’s website first to search.
Fake Review Sites
One of the most common online frauds is fake product reviews. I think we are all used to them when trying to search and find out if this supposedly great product that is being heavily promoted is really legitimate or worth the money. When you search for real customer reviews, you are very likely to end up at a fake review website with dozens of purportedly real customer reviews that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the product! Buy three!
LastPass, one of the leading password manager vendors, recently reported a new turn on the fake review scam. In this case, it was fake reviews posted on a real review website (i.e., the Chrome Web Store), for example, from LassPass’ warning shown below.
The fake reviews (on a legitimate review site) contained fraudulent technical support phone numbers that supposedly belonged to LastPass. The scammers were hoping that people coming across the reviews would call those fake numbers.
Even if the website is real, be aware that any user-submitted content may contain fraudulent content.
Fake Social Account Recovery Scams
A few weeks ago, I publicly reported that my personal Facebook account had been stolen from me. It took me a several days to recover it. But during that time, I had a ton of fake Facebook tech support people reach out to me “to help” (see example below).
They wanted me to call malicious phone numbers, email fraudsters, or reach out to people on WhatsApp. If I did so, the person I contacted would have eventually talked me into revealing further confidential information and likely asked for a credit card payment. To be clear, none of these contact points have anything to do with Meta, Facebook, or real technical support help.
Here is another one (shown below).
Isn’t it great that an administrative assistant at Amazon is helping me get my Facebook account back? How sweet!
I received dozens of these fake tech support account recovery attempts for days. And anyone publicly complaining about being locked out of their social media account will get tons.
Repeat after me: Anyone offering to recover your social media account after it has been taken over or locked out is likely a scammer. They will not get back your account. You will just lose money or more.
Note: There is one caveat to this rule. If the company reaching out is a legitimate IT or cybersecurity company, that does a whole lot more than just recover accounts AND you personally know people who have successfully recovered their social media accounts through them, then and only then can it be POSSIBLE to work with them to recover your account. Most of these are scams, too.
So, how do you recover a stolen or locked account? The only thing that will work is working with the legitimate vendor’s standard help or support suggestions and features. I worked for days to recover my account. I tried the same legitimate vendor support options dozens of times without success. I was completely frustrated. Then, one day, I tried something a little new and different, and it finally worked. But be mentally prepared for never getting your account back.
Another thing to remember is that your account on any vendor’s free website can be taken away from you forever without any warning, and you may never get it back. It isn’t yours. It’s theirs. Back up any beloved content. Most social media sites allow you to download everything you have ever posted to your account in a single download action if you can find the feature.
Conclusion
Be aware that search engine results and people offering tech support help may be fraudsters. Always go to the legitimate vendor’s website for help and to research phone numbers. If you make a mistake and end up on the wrong website or call the wrong phone number, it can be very difficult to spot the criminal fraud until it is too late.
