FBI warns of rise in tech-help fraud
Tech support fraud has been increasing at an alarming rate in Arizona and across the country, according to the FBI.
In 2017, about 11,000 complaints were received on the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center from people nationwide claiming they a total lost of $15 million in tech-support scams – an 86 percent increase from 2016.
Arizona residents have reported losing about $1.3 million to tech fraud so far this year, which already surpasses all of the total losses reported in 2017 by 263 percent, FBI officials said.
The scams involve an unsolicited phone call, email or computer-screen pop-up notification from someone purporting to be a tech-support specialist who has identified a virus infecting you computer. They offer to fix the problem – which very likely doesn’t exist – for a fee.
Special Agent Martin Hellmer, who supervises the FBI cyber squad in Phoenix, said this kind of fraud is becoming more common as more scam artists are having success.
“Anyone who is online is vulnerable to this scam,” Hellmer said. “There are well-organized criminal organizations around the world looking to victimize people.”
The FBI recently issued a warning to consumers about the ways tech support scam artists often operate.
Hellmer said that fraudulent techsupport companies often will advertise their services online alongside legitimate companies, seeking to trick a victim.
“The fraudsters have paid search engines to place ads high up in search results,” Hellmer said.
When a victim responds to a call, email or clicks on a pop-up, criminals will offer to help fix the victim’s technical issues, leading them to request remote access to the victim’s device.
With this access, scam artists can download malware to the victim’s computer, launch phishing attacks against the victim’s contacts and access the victim’s personal information such as tax returns or health records, the FBI said.
Additionally, in many instances, the victim has already paid the criminal for their alleged help before realizing the fraud.
“Criminals initiate contact with the victim and convince them to allow remote access,” Hellmer said. “Never grant access to an unverified company.”
A specific form of the fraud known as the “fake refund” is also becoming increasingly common.
This scheme involves an offer to the the victim for a refund for previous support services. The scam artist will then pretend to refund too much money to the victim’s account and ask the victim to return the difference, the FBI said.
This kind of “refund and return” process can happen multiple times, causing the victim to potentially lose thousands of dollars, the FBI said.
Hellmer said these kinds of scams can happen to anyone at any time of the year. However, he added that the many of the more recent victims have been individuals 60 or older.