FTC halts computer technical support scams based out of Florida

Charles do you know anything about REIMAGE?

 

Negative. Im sorry only thing i know is that, its deffinitly NOT a legit program they are using and i have seen it do more harm then good.

Edited by Charles.Pineda, 20 November 2014 - 02:05 PM.

I have about as much sympathy for people affected by phone scams as I do those who are infected by crypto-viruses, which is to say none. Perhaps I have slightly more sympathy for people who open random email attachments, but the lack of common sense that is required to fall prey to a phone scam is inexcusable. What irks me the most is the fact that I have customers who pay me to fix their computer on a regular basis who get these phone calls and not only listen to them, but allow them onto their computers, and then they argue with me when I tell them that the random foreign person on the other end of the phone was a scammer. I'll explain to them exactly how the scam works, and they'll still argue with me, even after they admit that they know nothing about computers.

 

It should be relatively obvious: you're receiving a phone call out of the blue, from someone in another country who wants to take control of your computer. Why on Earth does ANYONE ever let them? Likewise, I preach about backing up every time I replace a bad hard drive, and then a year later, I'm giving the same speech over again when the hard drive fails or their data becomes encrypted. "I have all these baby pictures, everything is on there!" Well, I sold you a backup device, and it has never been removed from the box.

 

People ask me on a regular basis about books on how to use their computer. Well, the problem with books is that you actually have to read them. Information is so widely available on the internet that if they really had any desire to actually figure something out, they would have taken the initiative and found it by now. They don't want a book, they want spoon-fed information, and please don't let it take more than five minutes of my time, thank you. I cannot help someone who refuses to help themselves.

For free community based tech help, Google

 

"user group" <your city>

 

...there are hundreds of friendly locally oriented groups/clubs or whatever they call themselves around the country. Many are general, covering all-things-tech. Others focus on Microsoft Windows, Apple, Linux, or much more obscure topics.

 

http://www.apcug2.org is a nationwide umbrella organization supporting/linking such groups, And a locator website for finding groups is http://ugls.apcug.net/

 

...or google

 

"user group"

 

to read all about these organizations.

Regarding rarson's tough-love "no sympathy" post -- yeah, I have leanings in that direction too. But I'm involved with local police and hear about all sorts of scams, technology related and NOT, which people fall for regularly. "Woodchucks" offering unnecessary/overpriced home repair, wire money to help your neighbor/friend who's been mugged out of the country, bogus door-to-door magazine subscription sales, and more. It's not just tech scams people fall for, it's anything you can imagine and a lot you can't. That's reality, human nature. Add mysteries of technology and a lot of people are simply defenseless -- it's not a matter of common sense; they have no framework for reliably hearing/understanding/analyzing/evaluating pitches. OF COURSE they should hang up on -- or insult, as I do -- bozos who call. But they're intimidated, or already worried about technology, or polite, or whatever. And some of the scammers are very good with their nonsense.

 

Even repeat offenders you mention -- I have my own set to deal with -- just aren't tech savvy. You sold 'em a backup device, and it's in the box a year later. You thought they'd install it, set it up to run automatically, verify that it was running, and test restore to ensure it was creating usable backups? Isn't that likely beyond their capabilities? Might as well expect me to perform 60K mile service on my car (including replacing timing chain!) -- isn't going to happen. Like it or not, computers and technology baffle and intimidate many people.

Well Mr. rarson I hope you never have to suffer the indignity of getting old

Well Mr. rarson I hope you never have to suffer the indignity of getting old

 

Do NOT start that "I'm too old to get it" crap. I have a customer who has a legitimate senility issue, he's the only person who can use that excuse. Everyone else who says that really means "I'm using my age as an excuse for my ignorance. I can't be bothered to spend the time to figure out how to use a computer properly." My ability to use a computer has nothing to do with my age, I simply took the time to figure out what I was doing.

 

Why do I say that? Because the people who use the age excuse are the same people who outright ignore me when I explain to them how to do the simple things that they ask me about. They tell me "I can't figure out how to do this, I'm too old!" and I say, "No, see it's actually very easy, all you have to do is..." and I can't even get the explanation out without them cutting me off, telling me once again that they "just don't get it." Well of course you don't get it, because you refuse to listen when someone actually tries to directly explain it to you. Anyone who willfully refuses knowledge of anything will never learn it. Again, that's not age, that's refusal to learn.

 

Regarding rarson's tough-love "no sympathy" post -- yeah, I have leanings in that direction too. But I'm involved with local police and hear about all sorts of scams, technology related and NOT, which people fall for regularly. "Woodchucks" offering unnecessary/overpriced home repair, wire money to help your neighbor/friend who's been mugged out of the country, bogus door-to-door magazine subscription sales, and more. It's not just tech scams people fall for, it's anything you can imagine and a lot you can't. That's reality, human nature. Add mysteries of technology and a lot of people are simply defenseless -- it's not a matter of common sense; they have no framework for reliably hearing/understanding/analyzing/evaluating pitches. OF COURSE they should hang up on -- or insult, as I do -- bozos who call. But they're intimidated, or already worried about technology, or polite, or whatever. And some of the scammers are very good with their nonsense.

 

Even repeat offenders you mention -- I have my own set to deal with -- just aren't tech savvy. You sold 'em a backup device, and it's in the box a year later. You thought they'd install it, set it up to run automatically, verify that it was running, and test restore to ensure it was creating usable backups? Isn't that likely beyond their capabilities? Might as well expect me to perform 60K mile service on my car (including replacing timing chain!) -- isn't going to happen. Like it or not, computers and technology baffle and intimidate many people.

 

The backups we sell are idiot-proof. All you have to do is plug it in, the software does the rest (yeah, they've got their own issues, but the point is that there's no excuse for not opening the box and plugging it in).

 

The thing about those other scams is that they may not be so obvious. I don't know when I may be getting ripped off for home repair, because I don't do that sort of thing too often (however, I'm the type who takes the time to do some research and potentially do it myself or at least get an idea of how much it should cost). But when it comes to computers, people take their computers to us all the time, they talk about how great we are, they purchase a plan which entitles them to free servicing whenever they need it, and then for no reason whatsoever, they let a complete stranger onto their computer and sometimes even pay them money to fix something that we fix for them for free! Why wouldn't you at least stop the minute the guy tells you your computer has a problem and bring it in to us, or at LEAST call? It's not logical at all. There's no reason to just blindly let a random person onto your computer, especially if you have data you want to keep.-

"The thing about those other scams is that they may not be so obvious" -- a home handyman might mock you some time for falling for something HE considers an obvious scam.

 

"It's not logical at all" -- people aren't logical? They're emotional, irrational, defensive, impulsive? Quick, alert the media.

 

Really, you're arguing against and criticizing human nature and fallibility. You understand technology and you think everyone can and should. But many can't/won't. Easy/obvious for you is hard/baffling/impossible for others. Scams of all sorts persist through human history. I've done plenty of tech support, from corporate/enterprise settings to volunteer helping people in computer user groups. Expecting everyone to meet you on your tech-capable terms is a recipe for failure and perhaps ill will on both sides. Don't emulate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell or the equivalent sysadmin, tech support guy.

 

I'm NOT defending your people -- as I said, I have my own repeat offenders. I offer to support my wife's friend's PC in exchange for occasional dinners. But she can't get her place neat enough for visitors, so things happen, and she occasionally takes her PC to the screwdriver shop I like for exorcisms at $x00/visit. Asking Why? and saying "There's no reason..." isn't productive and expects people to change in ways that just won't happen. Deal with it.

A friend and I have been considering starting a PC repair /tech support service. I want to do actual house calls and he wants to do remote tech support.
 
Guess this is a bad idea.

No, I think its a good idea and nothing wrong with it. As long as you provide quality support and dont try to sell them on something they dont need, then there is nothing wrong with remote support.

 

As long as you provide quality support and dont try to sell them on something they dont need

In fact it's a great idea, If you do a quality job at a reasonable price, Your customers  will remember this and tell their friends and so on, We call that word of mouth advertising.

 

Word of mouth can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

 

I swear this is true.

A friend just got a new second hand PC Acer aspire 5742, it was kinda slow and as she isnt close to where I live, She phoned me to ask how to speed it up, So first thing I ask is PC specs and find out, It has only 2 Gb ram, and running Windows 7, There's the problem.  So I suggests she take it to a local PC shop in her area and get them to put a 4 GB stick of ram in for her. Easy you would think? But no, They say to her that 'before you put in extra ram you need to put in a new HDD not because the old one is no good.... oh no, Its because the old one is not compatible with the 'extra ram' and then quoted her $360 for the ram and new HDD, Oh yes the new HDD was also the same size as the one in the laptop. Luckily she phoned me before she did anything, I told her what the PC shop said was rubbish bring the PC here and I will fit the new ram for her.  The PC shop charged her $65 for ' the work they did on her PC ' and told her  ' that PC wont last 3 weeks with the old HDD it will overheat and die because you listened to your friend who obviously has no idea of what he is talking about ' 

 

Now this friend tells everybody who wants to listen Do not take your pc to B@lin@ PC they rip you off. Again word of mouth.

 

I did phone the shop to ask for an explanation, The guy asked me some questions like, How long have you been using PC's? What operating system do you use?

At this point I decided to mess with him, I told him I run a Remastered Puppy Linux booting from a CD with the save file also on the same cd on my Hp pavillion g6, And Ubuntu on my i5 with 16 Gib ram on my desktop, His reply was ' then what would you know about how Windows works ' and he hung up on me.

 

Please be a good PC repair man as there are too many bad ones out there.

Edited by NickAu1, 21 November 2014 - 10:03 PM.

I have clients that date back to 1994 and i still work with them today, i have also been asked to take on certain contracts for companies and can tell you that quality is key and in this industry word of mouth is everything.
 
On another note i worked for ICE as a favor for a friend who was in need of a high level tech and witnessed first hand how companies like these cared very little about quality and only cared about quantity everyone knows that those never go together accurately. The company was ran more like a sweatshop than a call center never got a break and the food they gave you if you can call it that was catered by the local prison. All the departments SALES, LVL 1 & 2 TECHS all had drug addicts working on the floor you don't know how many times i would watch people just get high in the parking lot and then come into work like nothing was wrong. The company never does drug tests so why not right.
 
What i can say is that some of the people that called ICE where indeed taken advantage of and although i do agree knowledge is just a key stroke a way you do need to know what a keyboard is and the customers that called this place had trouble following simple instructions much less trying to guide them to remove a proxy in order to connect them through our Remote client.
 
These people are ruthless though, i had a client who had just been recuperating three weeks out of brain surgery was missing both legs and a arm and was the only one in the house hold to try and HELP ME connect to the remote client in order to do a $600 dollar tune with Driver Update and Regcure Pro installation. Because that's how they get you the "SALES" reps trick you by using the Event Viewer and a non registered FAKE program like regcure that shows you 60k problems and needs fixing. They are lied to and tricked into thinking their windows XP machines need PANDA AV installed with 512mb of memory i can go on and on. But at the end of the day, its Carma if you do harm to others sooner that harm will come back to you two folds over.
 
In conclusion to companies like ATS, OMG, ICE and the companies affected in this RAID good riddance and to the TECHS that i had the pleasure of meeting that are good hard working people, you guys are better off trust me.

Edited by Bluediamond, 22 November 2014 - 11:23 AM.

Thank you Bluediamond

A friend and I have been considering starting a PC repair /tech support service. I want to do actual house calls and he wants to do remote tech support.

 

 

 

Guess this is a bad idea.

Be ready to fight your way through trash and hoarder stashes. The sort of people that need 'on-site' help can't leave the house easily or won't leave easily. It's pretty gross. I know a guy that was at a house that was infested with bed bugs. As soon as he left he stripped down in the front yard and stuffed his clothes in a trash bag. It won't always be like this but don't be shocked when you see this once or twice a week.

I work as a tech and already have dealt with this lol

I have clients that date back to 1994 and i still work with them today, i have also been asked to take on certain contracts for companies and can tell you that quality is key and in this industry word of mouth is everything.
 
On another note i worked for ICE as a favor for a friend who was in need of a high level tech and witnessed first hand how companies like these cared very little about quality and only cared about quantity everyone knows that those never go together accurately. The company was ran more like a sweatshop than a call center never got a break and the food they gave you if you can call it that was catered by the local prison. All the departments SALES, LVL 1 & 2 TECHS all had drug addicts working on the floor you don't know how many times i would watch people just get high in the parking lot and then come into work like nothing was wrong. The company never does drug tests so why not right.
 
What i can say is that some of the people that called ICE where indeed taken advantage of and although i do agree knowledge is just a key stroke a way you do need to know what a keyboard is and the customers that called this place had trouble following simple instructions much less trying to guide them to remove a proxy in order to connect them through our Remote client.
 
These people are ruthless though, i had a client who had just been recuperating three weeks out of brain surgery was missing both legs and a arm and was the only one in the house hold to try and HELP ME connect to the remote client in order to do a $600 dollar tune with Driver Update and Regcure Pro installation. Because that's how they get you the "SALES" reps trick you by using the Event Viewer and a non registered FAKE program like regcure that shows you 60k problems and needs fixing. They are lied to and tricked into thinking their windows XP machines need PANDA AV installed with 512mb of memory i can go on and on. But at the end of the day, its Carma if you do harm to others sooner that harm will come back to you two folds over.
 
In conclusion to companies like ATS, OMG, ICE and the companies affected in this RAID good riddance and to the TECHS that i had the pleasure of meeting that are good hard working people, you guys are better off trust me.

 
 
**********************WHAT THIS GUY JUST WROTE IS TRUE, BUT IT LEAVES THE READER WITH THE WRONG THOUGHT/MINDSET GOING FORWARD IF INTERESTED IN THE TOPIC.
 
I HAVE WORKED FOR ICE, OMG TECH SUPPORT,ERACER TECH, ATS, RAPID TECH SUPPORT (OWNER CLOSED ITS DOORS THE DAY ICE AND OMG WERE RAIDED, NOT SURE WHY, BUT NOONE FORCED HIM)
 
AT SOME OF THESE COMPANIES I WORKED FOR A FEW WEEKS, ANOTHER 6 MONTHS, OMG OVER 1 YEAR.... AND I BOUNCED AROUND NOT BECAUSE I WAS SOME COMPUTER TECH GURU, I DO KNOW HOW TO MAINTAIN A COMPUTER NICELY BUT AM NO (LEVEL 3 MICROSOFT CERTIFIED *LOL*HAHA*JOKE*)
 
I AM AN EXPERT IN SALES AND HAVE A WAY OF EXPLAINING WHAT A COMPUTER IS, EVEN IF YOU ARE 97 YEARS OLD AND HAVE DEMENTIA. (SORRY)
 
I DO ADMIT EARLY ON I WAS A LIAR, AHOLE, USED SCARE TACTICTS, OVERCHARGED, AND TALKED NICE PEOPLE INTO THINKING THE PROBLEM WAS WORSE THAN IT REALLY WAS.
 
SOME COMPUTERS REALLY WERE MESSED UP, SOME JUST HAD SOME POPUPS AND DUMB STUFF, OTHER COMPUTERS WERE BRAND NEW AND THE PERSON JUST SO HAPPENED TO DOWNLOAD THEIR WAY TO ME WITHIN 24 HOURS SOMETIMES LESS, SOME COMPUTERS WERE 10 YEARS OLD OR OLDER, SOME COMPUTERS HAD PORN AND THE WIFE WAS COMING HOME, SOME PEOPLE HAD SOME SICK STUFF ON THEIR SCREENS THAT SHOULD BE REPORTED TO THE FBI, SOME COMPUTERS WERE JUST OVERSTUFFED WITH DOWNLOADS, SOME COMPUTERS JUST HAD TOO MANY "SPEEDY REPAIR PROGRAMS RIGHT NOW FOR 29.99"   ------ AND NO MATTER WHAT THE PROBLEM OR NO PROBLEM SOMETIMES, THE END WAS GOING TO BE ME MAKING THE CUSTOMER SPEND MONEY OR LOSE THEIR PC......
 
THE ONLY REASON I DID THIS WAS BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT I WAS TAUGHT....
 
IF U WANT THE TRUTH ONCE AND FOR ALL READ MY NEXT POST AND ASK ME QUESTIONS.........  I NO LONGER NEED TO LIE AT ALL AND I STILL WORK AT A TECH SUPORT COMPANY, I AM NO LONGER A SALES PERSON, I LITERALLY TELL TGE PERSON EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENNED WITHOUT USING SCARY WORDS EVER LIKE (VIRUS, WORM , TROJAN, INFECTED ETC) EVER EVER EVER........ AND THE CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDS THAT I AM NOT A TECHNITIAN BUT THAT I KNOW HOW TO MAINTAIN A COMPUTER AND CAN HELP THEM AND THEY DONT HAVE TO PAY 200-300 DOLLARS OR MORE UNLESS THEY HAVE MULTIPLE PCS..........   NEXT POST THE TRUTH

CALL ME WHATEVER YOU WANT. CROOK, LOWLIFE, LOSER, LIAR...... BUT IT DOESNT BOTHER ME. WORKING ON THE PHONES MAKES YOU USED TO THIS.... BUT TODAY IT BOTHERS ME EVEN LESS BECAUSE "COMPLIANCE" TO THE FTC AND BEING MORALLY CONCIOUS WITH THE CUSTOMERS HAS MADE ME MORE SUCCESSFULL THAN MOST OTHERS IN THIS NEW AGE OF EITHER BEING "COMPLIANT" AND FOLLOWING THE RULES, OR CONTINUE TO BE A LIAR AND EVENTUALLY HAVE THE FTC KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR.

 

THE PROBLEM:   ONCE YOU ARE GETTING POPUPS, ADVERTISEMENTS OR CHANGES BAING MADE TO UR PC WITHOUT YOU DOING IT URSELF IT IS TOO LATE.... THERE IS NO WAY TO FIX IT BY URSELF UNLESS U DO SOME STUDYING OR UNLESS U PAY SOMEONE..

 

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE POPUPS THEMSELVES AND HOW ANOYYING THEY ARE, THE PROBLEM IS WHAT IS ALLOWING THESE POPUPS AND PROGRAMS TO GET ONTO YOUR SCREEN... ONCE THEY ARE IN THEY ALREADY HAVE A KEY TO YOUR BACKDOOR AND THE CODE TO YOUR ALARM.....  AND BY THEY ITS NOT JUST ONE PERSON OR ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE..... ITS SOMEONE SELLING YOUR KEY AND ALARM CODE TO EVERYONE IN THE WORLD THAT WANTS A SHOT AT GETTING SOMETHING FROM YOUR PC OR FROM YOU....  ONCE THE KEY IS STOLEN IT CAN BE DUPLICATED MILLIONS OF TIMES AND EVERY COMPUTER TECH SCAMMER IN THE WORLD CAN ANSWER THE PHONE IF YOU CALL( IF U ARE LUCKY) BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE CALL AFTER THE FACT THEYR IDENTITY HAS BEEN STOLEN.

 

 THERE ARE MANY PROBLEMS

THE PROBLEM IS THAT UNKNOWINGLY THE CUSTOMER HAS DOWNLOADED SOMETHING THAT ALLOWS SOMEONE ACCESS TO PLACE A SERVICE/PROGRAM/TOOLBAR/UPDATER/PROCESS INTO THE COMPUTER ( SPYWARE,ADWARE,MALWARE, ROOTKIT, VIRUS) AND IT DOESNT KILL UR PC, IT ALLOWS SOMEONE TO GET YOUR PERSONAL INFO ( WETHER U GIVE IT TO THEM KNOWINGLY, OR WETHER THEY SPY ON UR PC WHILE DOING SHOPPING OR WHATEVER U DO, INCLUDING PASSWORDS, BANKING INFO, PERSONAL FOLDERS, PICTURES, INFO ETC)  ONCE

 

  "THE PROBLEM IS WHAT IS ALLOWING THESE THINGS ACCESS TO THE COMPUTER, NOT THAT THERE ARE TECH SUPPORT COMPANIES OVERCHARGING( THEY ARE NOT INFECTING THE PC, WHO IS?"

 

SOME CUSTOMERS HAVE GREAT ANTIVIRUS THEY PAY ANNUALLY FOR AND MALWARE PROGRAMS PROTECTING THE PC, BUT THEIR COMPUTERS STILL GET THESE MESSAGES OR PROGRAMS POPPING UP. AND THE CUSTOMER HAS DONE EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO PROTECT THEMSELVES BUT NOTHING MAKES YOU BULLETPROOF, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A REPAIR WITH COMPUTERS THAT WILL WORK FOREVER, YOU CAN ONLY DO MAINTENANCE.

 

 POPUPS AND REGISTRY CLEANERS/SPEED REPAIR PROGRAMS/ BACKUP PROGRAMS/ DRIVER UPDATERS/  HOW THESE PROGRAMS TELLING YOU THAT YOU HAVE ISSUES (REGISTRY CLEANERS, ANTIVIRUSES ETC) HOW THESE ADVERTISEMENTS AND POPUPS SOMETIMES CLAIMING TO BE MAJOR COMPANIES GETTING ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN CONSTANTLY (SOME OF THESE POPUPS OR PROGRAMS THAT GET INTO OUR PC SOMETIMES WILL EVEN GO AS FAR AS PUTTING MICROSOFT LOGOS AND OTHER BIG COMPANIES ON THEIR USER INTERFACE OR MESSAGES.

 

NOT THE PROBLEM: THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE TECH SUPPORT COMPANIES, THE PROBLEM IS THAT UNKNOWINGLY THE CUSTOMER HAS DOWNLOADED SOMETHING THAT ALLOWS SOMEONE ACCESS TO PLACE A SERVICE/PROGRAM/TOOLBAR/UPDATER/PROCESS INTO THE COMPUTER ( SPYWARE,ADWARE,MALWARE, ROOTKIT, VIRUS) AND IT DOESNT KILL UR PC, IT ALLOWS SOMEONE TO GET YOUR PERSONAL INFO ( WETHER U GIVE IT TO THEM KNOWINGLY, OR WETHER THEY SPY ON UR PC WHILE DOING SHOPPING OR WHATEVER U DO, INCLUDING PASSWORDS, BANKING INFO, PERSONAL FOLDERS, PICTURES, INFO ETC)

 

SOME TEC SUPPORT COMPANIES ARE GOOD, SOMEWHAT COMPLIANT ( EVERYONE HAS A FEW BAD APPLES, TRUE ANYWHERE)

 

A GOOD TECH SOMPANY WILL TELL YOU "WE ARE NOT MICROSOFT, BUT ARE MICROSOFT PARTNERS' , "I CANT TELL YOU WHAT IS IN YOUR COMPUTER BECAUSE I AM NOT A CERTIFIED TECH, BUT I CAN HELP YOU TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING AND POINT OUT SYMPTOMS THAT YOUR COMPUTER IS SHOWING THAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO HAVE A CERTIFIED TECH REMOVE FOR YOU"

 

BASICALLY A GOOD TECH COMPANY SOMETIMES SOUNDS LIKE THE WORST.... BECAUSE SOMEONE WHO IS NOT SCAMMING YOU WILL NOT CLAIM TO KNOW WHAT A VIRUS IS IF U HAVE ONE (BECAUSE IT WOULD NOT BE COMPLIANT FOR SOMEONE WHO IS NOT A TECH TELL U WHAT IS A VIRUS, THEY ARE NO MORE CERTIFIED THAN YOU TO SAY SO)

 

A GOOD TECH COMPANY WILL NEVER SCARE YOU, THEY WILL JUST ASK WHAT IS IT THAT YOU DONT WANT TO HAPPEN, IF U WANT TO KNOW WHY IT IS HAPPENING THEY CAN TELL YOU AS BEST THEY CAN WITHOUT USING WORDS LIKE ( THIS IS A VIRUS ADWARE MALWARE TROJAN ETC, WITHOUT SAYING THIS NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED, WITHOUR SAYING THIS IS DAMAGE, BASICALLY WITHOUT SAYING NOT WHAT YOU HAVE BUT WHAT YOU PROBABLY SHOULDNT HAVE WITHOUT MAKING IT EVEN SOUND BAD AT ALL BECAUSE SAYING " O WOW LOOK AT ALL THIS, THIS IS BAD" IS A SCARE TACTIC AND NOT COMPLIANT"

 

I AM TIRED AND WILL POST MORE LATER I AM GETTING SIDETRACKED BUT ANY QUESTIONS JUST QUOTE OR REPLY