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December 7, 2012 By News Staff
Between November 2010 and August 2012, the Federal Trade Commission was flooded with consumer complaints and reports of a scam related to their PCs.
The victims said that people claiming to be from Windows Tech Support were cold-calling them, informing them that their Windows installation had problems and they need only purchase $99 software to fix said problems. The victim hands over his credit card information for this purchase, but later sees a $495 wire transfer. In some instances, the scammer convinces his mark to grant remote access to the computer, as the scammer installs malware and attempts to gain more personal information.
As Ars Technica reports, officials at the Federal Trade Commission are fighting the scammers by calling them directly and pretending to want assistance.
Eager to take advantage of another mark, scammers frequently accepted the fact that they were being called directly, and investigators were able to trace some of the scammers' information and ultimately initiate legal action.
And after finding a scammer's phone number on a consumer reports website, investigators were able to not only call the scammers, but also link phone numbers with websites used by the scammers and begin building cases.
With URLs in hand, investigators made requests to Google to share email accounts based on the scammer's domain name's WHOIS data. The combination of phone numbers, websites and email addresses allowed the FTC to identify a company called Zeal IT Solutions as the main source behind the scams, with other companies, such as Virtual PC Solutions, performing similar scams.
On the whole, the FTC identified 80 domain names and 130 phone numbers of scammers that would be used to initiate legal action against 14 corporations and 17 people. In the case of Zeal IT Solutions, the scammers were summoned to court, issued injunctions for closure of business and ordered to disclose financial records -- but no one from Zeal IT Solutions responded.
In other cases, progress is further along. In a case against Virtual PC Solutions, defendant Mikael Marczak provided financial documents to the FTC and is reportedly cooperating.
There is a lot of money to be made by a Windows tech support scam, and because a scammer needs little more than a telephone and computer to succeed, such scams continue to be common, despite the FTC's continued efforts.
Read the in-depth story about how the FTC scammed the scammers at Ars Technica.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/pcio/articles/FTC-Scams-Windows-Tech-Support-Scammers.html
Hello, I was just contacted by one of these scammers and went on about it for about 5 minutes and got a phone number to try and verify. Not sure if it is correct but hope it can help you catch them. 860.308.1408 at no time did I tell them I dont run windows to keep them talking.
I was contacted by a Nelnet 1-402-875-9095 which showed on my Caller ID screen. It was a fellow with a thick India accent. He said he was from Windows and my computer had lots of error messages. He wanted me to connect to www.ammyy.com so a computer tech could fix my problems. I said No and that I would check it out. I also asked if it was going to cost me money. He said yes if my license had expired. I hung up on him.
Received a cold call from Windows tech support. Caller ID said out ot area. Was told by 'Max' (very heavy accent) that security had received a message from my IP address indicating that there was a virus and my antivirus would 'clear the computer but not the hard drive'. Stalled him by saying I had to meet the school bus and was given this phone #- 209.813.2737 Angels Camp , Ca voice over internet
This is the 2nd time I have been contacted by a "windows tech support" individual with a heavy Indian accent. He told me his name is Peter and his call back number is 1-866-539-8803. I spoke with him at length and told him I knew he was a scam artist which he denied. I never got on my computer with him, but asked if he was going to need a credit card number and he said he would. I eventually hung up on him.
These scammers just called me from a blocked number. I let them go on for about 10min while laughing. In the end I told them I needed to know which computer it was doing it. She only said my personal PC. I said well that may be all well and good but here is the thing. I run LINUX on all my PC's here, not Windows. So please tell me again which one it is? Told them I knew it was a scam and she eventually hung up.