Victim Location 92211
Total money lost $500
Type of a scam Tech Support
a virus crashed the computer and referred to fake Microsoft help number which in turn referred to Right Help Desk and Isecurity to fix the virus asking for $500 to do this.
Victim Location 92211
Total money lost $499.99
Type of a scam Tech Support
On Jan 25, 2016 I was downloading an instruction manual for a bicycle tire pump. I had avast antivirus free version installed. It warned me of a virus. Then a popup window appeared that said I had a virus and to contact Microsoft and had a phone number. (I don’t have that phone number). I couldn’t do anything else on the computer, so I reset the computer and the same message came up. I contacted the phone number suggested on the pop up message and gave them the error message and they remotely accessed my computer and told me that someone else had remotely logged into our server and that they couldn’t help me. They offered 2 options for someone who could help me, one was for $199.99 for online assistance that would take 60-90 minutes, the other was quite a bit more, not sure how much, but it would take a week to get my computer fixed. I had no idea what computer support costs so opted for the online. The supposed Microsoft person transferred the connection to the online support people (Right Help Desk), who proceeded to delete a bunch of files and supposedly fixed the virus. They then offered to sell me a virus protection, since avast didn’t prevent the virus I agreed to theirs. $249.99 which included firewall protection and 1 year tech support from Isecure Internet Security. They said the tax brought the total charge to $499.99. They didn’t provide me with the actual code to load the software myself, but they loaded it from a corporate number that I never got a chance to record
First I think they initiated the virus and set up the message to contact Microsoft. I have contacted Microsoft after the fact and they said they don’t do such messaging.
I think the initial contact was with “Right Desk Help” not Microsoft at all. The easy that the initial contact transferred the computer connection to the tech doing the work says it was the same company.
I also think isecure internet security is also connected to right help desk. Who would sell you software without giving you the code to reload if necessary.
I have erased my hard drive in case they had loaded monitoring files on my computer and that has erased the isecure software and I can’t reload it if I wanted to.
Victim Location 98407
Total money lost $379
Type of a scam Tech Support
Web popup claiming computer is infected. Gained remote controll of computer and showed supposed proof of infection. Convinced victim to pay for virus removal.