Have you ever met the alert that tells you to call for support like Windows tech support? I bet the answer would be yes for many people. In the past, Microsoft seems to be ignoring this aspect of management; but now, it is fighting back.
Have you ever heard of or experienced tech support scams? Actually, it is not a new problem; on the contrary, it is indeed an industry-wide issue. The Windows tech support scammers will trick you into paying for the technical support services which are unnecessary by using scare tactics. Now, a new tactic is used by the phishing attackers to try to steal your private and sensitive information.
Microsoft Is Fighting Back Windows Tech Support Scammers
Please be highly alert when you are in face of the following situation:
- Seeing an alert that advise you to call for Windows tech support
- Getting a phone call from people who are claimed to work for Microsoft
- …
Please don’t trust them easily! The Windows tech support scams are actually a persistent menace for many years. Microsoft never took actions in the past; but now, it starts to fight back against the tech support scams.
Guess you may be interested in the Ransomware Prevention Policy.
Investigate Tech Support Call Centers
In mid-October, 2018, the Indian authorities have descended on 10 call centers and arrested 24 people.
During the end of November and the beginning of December, the Indian police again conducted a search of the shady tech support call centers. They send 100 officers to 16 different facilities. During this raid, 39 individuals are arrested due to swindling victims overseas by pretending to be the employees from the following companies:
- Microsoft
- Apple
- HP
- Dell
The Senior Superintendent of Police said that those scammers have defrauded money from thousands of people and most of the victims are American or Canadian.
Losses Caused by the Scam
According to Microsoft’s announcement on the crackdown in India, the average payment is within the range from $150 to $499. Well, about 22,000 people said they have lost about $200 to $400 money. There is also one person whose bank account was drained of nearly $110,000. How terrible it is!
Microsoft also made it public in the recent presentation at the RSA conference that they have received 153,000 reports from Windows users located in 183 different countries in this year (the number of users have jumped 24%).
The police gained a lot of evidence:
- Chat logs
- Call recordings
- The scripts (used by scammers to manipulate the potential victims)
Here’s another shocking statistic: Microsoft said that about 60% of its consumers have been proved to have ever interacted with a tech support scammer during the past 12 months.
Microsoft Wants to End the Scams
Now, Microsoft would like to put an end to the tech support scams once and for all. It hopes to ensure the safety of users by uniting the whole industry. In a recent blog, Microsoft said that “scale and complexity of tech support scams require cooperation”.
Besides, Microsoft is trying its best to help users identify phone scams, web scams and any other types of scams:
- It provides some useful tips to help you get away from Windows tech support scammers.
- It offers a list of tech support scam phone numbers (nearly 1000 numbers are included) and a list of common web support scams (73 cases are included).
Also, Microsoft gives you suggestions on what to do when your information has already been stolen by a tech support scammer.
At last, Microsoft hopes all users work together to help stop the scammers from tricking more people by reporting the tech support scams in time on this page.
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