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Total Tech Support Scam

Anonymous
2016-04-01T22:31:27+00:00

I am reporting a tech Support Scam from Total Tech Support USA. It happened yesterday 3/31/2016.

In the "blue screen" of the AOL inmail which I recognized belonged to someone I know, there is a pop up informing me that my computer has a virus and to call 888-803-3046.

The technician called "Peter" says that he would remove the virus, have the system tune up and install "STOPzilla" antivirus software for $299.99.

The call is then passed to Mike the "Manager" who have me confirm that I agreed to have the job done for $299.99.

I agreed.

About 4 hours later, there was a pop up informing me that the job has been completed and if there is any further question, I am to call  866-538-6508.

I then become suspicious of the "blue screen", have the computer checked by Brandon at the Microsoft Store at the Standard Shopping Mall, Palo Alto, Ca this morning.

Brandon confirmed that it was a scam and I should report it.

Regards:  BL

[Original title: Tech Support Scam]

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-02T07:55:14+00:00

    Do not call any numbers again and please report it to Microsoft here > http://support.microsoft.com/reportascam

    For additional information please see:

    Unfortunately, neither Microsoft nor our security software can protect us from ourselves. All we can do is pick up the pieces and learn from our mistakes.

    Have you contested the charge with your bank? You may be able to get the charge reversed by your credit card company.

    It is further advised to never provide remote access, your credit card, or financial information to anyone who claims to be from any 'un-verified' tech-support. If you did, call the credit card company to reverse the charge, cancel it and get a new one issued to you, and change the passwords on your computer and your online accounts, preferably from a different, known-safe computer.

    The FTC has prepared very useful information about the tech-support and refund scam at: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams

    Since there is no telling what the scammer has installed on your PC without your knowledge, and how badly it might be compromised, you would now need to notify your bank and anyone who you've had dealings with over the Internet, shut down your PC, and do a clean install of your Operating System. This might be the only way you will know that you are free of them.

    Hope this helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-06T06:59:31+00:00

    Hi,

    If you all face any issue with scam on the name of Microsoft. Please refer the Microsoft article below on avoiding Scams and frauds on Microsoft name:

    Avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently

    http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/msname.aspx

    Do keep us updated.

    Regards,

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-30T00:54:32+00:00

    First off, Total Tech Support is not a scam. Check pinpoint.microsoft.com and type in the name of the company and all support companies affiliated with Microsoft are on there, a Microsoft website! As far as remote access goes, you can see exactly what the tech is doing on your computer as opposed to dropping it off at a store location where they keep your computer for multiple days with no clue who is doing what to your computer. Again, remote access means you can see exactly what is going on. If your having issues with the software, pay attention to the phone number you are given and call tech support. Just because you don't understand something, it does not mean it is a scam!

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  3. Monkey57 3,535 Reputation points
    2016-04-04T20:24:31+00:00

    http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-803-3046

    Popping up scarey windows, freezing browsers, scaring individuals into spending more and more money, & promoting unnecessary products, strikes me as an unethical way to do business.

    Glad a Win10 reset(remove everything) and/or clean install is so easy.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-04-04T19:37:51+00:00

    Customer Relations Department TTSU:

    In response to BO, Boon LiangPang, we would like to first apologize that your experience with our company wasn't satisfactory, TTSU offers every one of our customers a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, if for any reason you were dissatisfied or had any issues TTSU would have taken care of them, our customer service department, and our IT department are very capable of doing so, we have a fully trained staff that is ready for any problem or issues that our customers may come across, from our Level 1 to our Network Engineers we employ a very experienced staff for these reasons.

    TTSU will be celebrating its third year, and is a full IT support company with Retail, Wholesale, Commercial, and regular Consumers as our customer base, our commercial division consists of many medical offices, law firms, accounting offices, automotive industry accounts such as auto parts, auto repair shops, and so many more, these companies rely on TTSU to handle and support every aspect of their businesses IT. TTSU has several locations all located in the USA, with more under construction and opening soon, we give thousands of customers the same treatment we give our commercial customers and try to make every single one a priority.

    TTSU is an authorized re-seller of Stopzilla software and we have successfully sold and installed thousands of these software's for our customers, we chose to partner with a local US based software manufacturer to better serve our customers and give them support with US products, we consider this to be a very good product that is compatible to much higher priced software's on the market. 

    Our industry has been tainted by irregularities in what the consumer gets or what if anything is done to their computer, many IT companies outsource repairs to foreign companies or never doing any repairs or installation of software that was offered to the consumer. We are a re-seller and do not own the software the consumer gets a notification directly from the software company which is beneficial for them, they are emailed a key number of the software and they own it,  we give either 3,6,9, or 12 months of IT support to each customer and many take advantage of this in many ways, if we were a scam why would we offer this support to our customers or build multiple locations for the commercial aspect of our business.

    One dissatisfied customer is not what we strive for at TTSU, nor will we say that every single person that calls our company is 100% satisfied, but for the better part many more are than are not or our phones wouldn't be ringing with the neighbors, friends, family members of those we have successfully helped. If a customer takes or joins a group of people that were scammed and believe that there are nothing but scammers in our industry then that will be the choice made by them, but in fairness to ourselves we stand by what we do and guarantee every job, and support we give our customers, if any dissatisfied customer would just take the time to call our customer service department and realize how consumer friendly we were, it would save them and us a lot of aggravation and time.

    Once again we do apologize to Ms. Lang, and recommend that you get in contact with us, if there is anything we can do to make your transition a better and smoother one we will, our customer service department is there and in place to take any of these worries away from any one of our customers that may have any doubt as to who we are and what we either did or do for them.

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