Here's how to avoid tech support scams
Beware calls, emails or pop-ups warning you of a ‘problem.’
Arzella “Sally” Moser is a retired banker in Hayward, Calif., who said she should’ve known better than to be sucked in by a tech support scam.
“I used to be a signature expert,” said Moser, 76. She helped to detect forgeries while working in the fraud division of what is now Chase Bank.
Yet she and others — many of them elderly — are among a large number of people targeted by companies pushing a growing scam: bogus tech support. Microsoft said it received 153,000 reports last year from customers who “encountered or fell victim to tech support scams,” a 24 per- cent rise from the prior year.
Moser is among several Bay Area residents who recently shared accounts of how they were targeted, while Microsoft and Mountain View-based cybersecurity firm Symantec described warning signs that a company or caller may not be on the level when offering online support services.
Moser and many others became victims of a scam whose accused perpetrator ran Hayward-based Genius Tech- nologies. Parmjit Singh Brar, operator of Genius, reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in June. He must pay $136,000 but under the settlement neither admits nor denies the allegations.
The FTC accused Brar of working with telemarketers to trick elderly Americans into buying fake tech support services. The telemarketers claimed to be from wellknown tech companies and told people their computers were at risk, the FTC said in a June news release. Those who allowed remote access were charged money to get outdated security software installed on their computers, and their personal information was stolen, the FTC said.
The FTC settlement also bars Brar from operating tech support services again.
Brar’s attorney, Guyton Jinkerson, said he had no comment on the matter.
It’s unclear at this point whether Moser — who was scammed out of more than $3,500 by a few different com- panies — and other victims will get their money back. The FTC judgment was for $7.6 million, but it was partially suspended because of Brar’s inability to pay the full amount, according to the FTC.
“We are evaluating whether a refund program is feasible in this case,” said Juliana Gruen- wald, an FTC spokeswoman.
Moser recounted how it all started for her. She got a phone call one morning not long after logging on to her computer to find a message that she had been hacked.
“They told me there was a Russian spammer who attacked my system,” she said. “Then they asked, ‘Do you do banking online? Hopefully they haven’t gotten to your bank- ing. Give us $300 and we can correct this for you.’” After that first amount, which was charged to her credit card in 2015, her computer worked fine, she said.
Then she said she was shaken down again in 2016, and a couple more times last year. In April 2017, she wrote a $1,918 check to Genius Tech- nologies and sent it to a Newark address. A copy of her Genius Technologies paper- work shows that it even asked customers not to “allow anyone to access your computer on a call you receive.”
Eventually, Moser said she used her age to her advantage, telling the callers that she didn’t remember owing them money.
Another company she paid has been reported to the FTC at least a few times, according to documents obtained by this news organization as part of a Freedom of Infor- mation Act request. The FTC was careful to note that it has not necessarily verified all the complaints. The email address and phone number the company provided to Moser are unreachable and appear to no longer be in service. This news organization is withholding the name of that company because the complaints are unverified.
So what should people do to avoid being scammed?
“If you think there’s a prob- lem with your computer, take it to a friend or take it to a computer repair shop,” said Kevin Haley, director of prod- uct management for security response at Symantec. “It’s sort of like with your car. You have to find a mechanic you can trust.”
In addition, Symantec — which owns Norton antivi- rus and other security software — would never call a customer about a frozen com- puter, he said.
“Right there, 100 percent of those phone calls are scams,” Haley said.
The scams also take other forms: Last year, Symantec blocked 154 million phony messages suggesting a problem with users’ computers.
Louis Stephan of Concord, who’s 83, said he got a message that appeared to be from Microsoft when his computer froze up. He called the number in the message and reached someone who offered him different tiers of “protection” for his computer. He said he eventually paid a total of $1,100 to EZFix Solution, at a San Diego address — which turns out to be residential. But his story has a happy ending: He barely lost any money.
“I told them I would tell the FTC,” Stephan said, when he asked for his money back. He said in the end, he only lost $35, the fee to put a stop payment on the check.