Global PC Support Scam
I had a call from one of my regular customers last week, telling his computer wouldn’t start up.
Whilst I was there diagnosing the problem, I mentioned that there seem to be a lot of scam calls at the moment, claiming to be representing Microsoft, saying they have received reports the person has problems with their computer. “Oh, funnily enough I had one of those last week”, he said. I asked him if he let them control his computer and paid them any money. “Yes, they downloaded some specialist software and charged me £180 for 2 years support”.
Oh dear.
The “specialist software” they downloaded and installed was Ccleaner and Malwarebytes Antimalware, both available freely to anybody. They cleaned up his temporary files with Ccleaner, then ran a scan with Malwarebytes. Quite a clever way of doing it as it speeds up the scan time as it won’t have any temporary files to scan.
The person controlling his computer also showed him the Event Viewer to demonstrate the errors and warnings generated by his computer. This is another way of making the user think he has problems on his computer, as it’s normal to see some errors in Event Viewer.
Now it gets worse.
The fault turned out to be the motherboard. I took the system away for repair. When I returned it and set it up again for my customer, I mentioned that it would be interesting to see what Global PC Support could have done for him if he called them to report the faulty motherboard, seeing as he had paid them for 2 years support. “Oh them, they called me yesterday to say they had detected keylogging software on my computer. They said they could remove it for £180″. That’s right, £180. To remove non-existant software, even though he’s already paid them. He told them no thanks and put the phone down. He was too polite to ask them how they’d managed to detect this keylogging software on his computer while it was in pieces in my workshop.
Please be aware of these scams. There are many of them using different names. Remember:
- Microsoft DO NOT respond individually to any error reports, no matter how many time you click to submit them.
- It is normal for the Event Viewer to show some errors, it’s understanding what they are that is important.
- Never pay for anything as a result of an unsolicited phone call.
- If in doubt, tell them to call back later, then phone us and tell us what you have been told.
Please report any calls you suspect of being a scam to us via our Contact page.
Thanks for posting this.
I received a very convincing phone call a couple of days after I had been experiencing a problem with Internet Explorer crashing.
The caller told me they were calling on behalf of Microsoft, and had reports I was having a problem with my computer. They did exactly as described here, and talked me through looking at Event Viewer, and told me I had a virus.
They told me that if I didn’t let them remove it they would remove my ip address and I would have no internet! They said it would cost £150 to fix the problem. This sounded very expensive and this aroused my suspicion.
I told the caller to give me 5 minutes to find my card. He said he would hold but I said to call back and put the phone down. I did a quick Google search and found this website. I called them and had a very interesting conversation with the business owner, who confirmed my suspicions.
I have since had 2 phone calls from these scamming thieves and told them where to go.
Thanks very much for putting this information into the public domain. These people are no better than thieves and muggers, preying on people’s ignorance. I hope they get their comeuppance.
I’ve just had a call from Global PC Support, though I only realised who they were at the end of the phone call. They initially rang yesterday and said they were calling as a result of numerous ‘Error’ messages sent to Microsoft and showed me a list of these when I ran msconfig on my computer. I was very suspicious so said I needed to contact my service provider, (who told me to be wary).
They rang again today and I did reluctantly let them control my PC, thinking that if it had been a scam they wouldn’t normally be so persistent. At the end of it they told me I needed a proper antivirus software as the free Avast I was using wasn’t licensed. They suggested a £129 policy at http://www.techi4u.com.au which made me realise it was undoubtedly a scam. When I hesitated, I was put onto the manager, Jason, who tried to convince me (in his better English) that I needed to buy this product or risk buying a new computer, and to ring him on 0800 014 8993.
Thanks to a Google search I found your site and would be happy if you include my experience to warn others
Many thanks
DL
I too just spent 37 minutes on-line with first a young woman I could hardly understand because of a very strong Indian accent (Sandy) and then Josh Dawson Microsoft & Cisco Certified Technician #7860133 who indeed spoke better English but still had an accent.
I kept asking what they were selling and they insisted that they were not selling me anything — I just needed to renew my Microsoft license (which only lasted 6 months from purchase) in order to accept any updates from Microsoft. Eventually he hung up on me ~ or we were abruptly interrupted because I was too persistent. Eventually he was going to tell me how much 2, 3, 5, or 7 years of license renewal for 10 computers would cost, but he gave up on me before that.
Thank you for this post — I feel much better about things. And yes, I too have been having issues with my internet (Firefox), but ran CCleaner and things have been better. I will contact my virus protection company (Panda Global) and work with them on some follow up maintenance ~ but am not nearly as alarmed as I was while they verified my CLSID number and walked me through my errors in event viewer.
Why must people prey on the non-geeks of the world! To all you technical experts (geeks extraordinaire) who willing assist us challenged in that area — THANK YOU!!!!
I just got a call from these guys a couple of minutes ago and it sounded all very fishy to me….glad this webpage was up to confirm my suspicions!
Had the same experience last week (24/3/2012) but site wished to sell me a gold cover lasting until 2050 and transferrable for £290!! Fortunately barclaycard refused payment and I did not suffer any los but card was scrapped. They were similarly convincing and I got the story about all these erroneous files and the message that I would soon need a new HD and probably computer. Sounded all so convincing and I had a luckiy escape. Should know better!
I received a call from techi4u this morning. As they had called out of the blue I assumed they were Virgin tech ringing me, same Indian accents I here whenever I have contacted them in the past. The call went on much as you described it until he took me to their website and asked me to pay for a service contract. At this the alarm bells began to ring and I told him to ring back in a couple of hours because I was going to contact virgin tech to check on what he’d said and he tried to make me believe that Virgin would charge me £130.00 if I did. I told him their tech support was free and put the phone down, I then began a full virus scan and decided to Google their company and yours was the first result.
Thank you for your public spirit in informing us about this scam thanks again and if I were anywhere near Wolverhampton I would use your services if required, sadly I’m in Leeds which is a bit too far to travel.