Victim Location 89512
Type of a scam Tech Support
Got a phone call that there was a problem with my computer being infected with a trojan virus. Sam, claiming he was with Tech World America in conjunction with Microsoft , asked my a few questions before handing me off to Aaron. He was the tech support guy. He told me to turn on computer and do a couple of things and then came the money part. I got very upset as I asked them earlier about money and was told no.
My son heard what was going on & got on the phone. He was able to stop what they were trying to do to my computer because I refused to print out a payment form.
As soon as call the FBI came out they hung up. They called again. And also on Monday,but since I recognized the # I did not answer.
Claimed they were in Las Vegas, but I could not find a website for the company they said they were with.
Victim Location 03281
Type of a scam Tech Support
Person with India accent calls and say my Dell computer contacted them to warn of a degrading system. Alex Tawol talks me into letting him hook their server to my computer to correct the files, leading me to believe he worked with Dell. He used a chat session with the name David McDonald on it with a trial support ID of 865498. He shows me the problems and wants me to register with "Tech World America a company by Dell" to replace my current McAfee with their system for 299.00 which will be paid by a refund by McAfee. That’s when I asked him his name and finally questioned if this was a scam whereby Alex then changed my computer password and locked me out. I threatened with writing the BBB to get him to give me the password, which he refused until I registered. I was trying to restart my computer. Once I found a way to restore my computer on my own, I told Alex he was nothing but a scam and hung up on him.
Victim Location 98146
Type of a scam Tech Support
Received a call regarding my windows operating system, I said I was not interested and hung up. She called me back and asked why I hung up. I told her I was not interested and this was a scam call and she continued to talk so I merely put the phone down and let her ramble on until she realized I wasn’t on the line. She called me for a 3rd time. That is when I asked for her name employee ID, company and company phone number. She stopped short of giving me a company phone number and eventually hung up on me. Most aggressive of this type of call I have ever received. She claimed she was going to disable my computer.
Victim Location 83702
Total money lost $145
Type of a scam Phishing
They’re telling me I’m going to jail for using a mac with a phony operating system. I bought the computer refurbished on Amazon. It might be a fake operating system. I’m not computer savvy.
Now I’m getting calls "from the IRS" saying if I don’t give them another $600, I’ll owe the government $75000 and I might go to jail for 5 years.
Victim Location 83709
Total money lost $1,046
Type of a scam Tech Support
My wife found Tech World America online because of computer problems she was having. They offered to fix the computer and put virus protection programs on her computer and to fix all problems for a certain amount of time, 2 years for $299.00 for up to 2 computers. He said his name was James Wilson. He had what sounded like an India accent. The money was paid on 3-11-16. To pay for the service, they transferred me to an American in Nevada who spoke English (I think his name was John). He had us put in our account number and routing number online and he withdrew the money that way. Tech World accessed the computer remotely and seemed to fix the computer but didn’t put on the Norton anti-virus software they promised. Since she had her own, I didn’t worry too much about it. The next day, I believe, they called to see how the computer was working and my wife seemed to be happy about the end result so I had them remote into our other computer to fix it. Everything seemed to be fine and we decided to do their lifetime guarantee for $199.00 more. This time, the money was withdrawn from our account without any notice on our part of how it was done. The money was paid on 3-22-16. In May, my wife said that her computer was acting up again. We contacted them. By the way, the automated voice is an American woman who gives the option 1 of talking to the support team. When I push 1, I am transferred to these guys speaking with an India accent. I asked to speak to James Wilson. James said that they needed an additional $548.00 because our Microsoft license had been stolen so they would have to replace it. I argued with him because he told us after paying a total of $498.00 that we would never have to pay another cent. He said we paid for tech support, not to have our licenses replaced because a "hacker" got them. James said the money would immediately be refunded back to us but he needed it to be able to proceed. I paid him $548.00 the same way to the American, John in Nevada. I talked a bit with John while we were doing the transfer and he said that Tech World America had been in business for about 4 years now and he said he wanted to redo the website. After he again withdrew the money the way he did the first time, I was put back in contact with James. He said he had processed the refund and gave me the refund number RF0786. James said the money would be back in our account on 5-20-16. On 5-21-16 I called him because the money had not posted to our account yet. I spoke to another person who asked if I do online banking and that they would have to put the money back in directly by giving him the account and routing number. I refused saying that’s not how it was done the last time, meaning when I was transferred to John in Nevada. I argued with him and finally asked to speak to his supervisor who called himself Nigel. Nigel basically said the same thing and I refused again. He told me he would do it another way and that the money would be posted on 5-23-16. I called on 5-23-16 because the money was not back in my account. I was transferred to James again who said he was aware of that and that there was an issue and he was getting it taken care of and the money was going to be in that week. I told him when I get home from work on Friday 5-27-16 that I would be calling him again if the money was not there. The money was not there and I called again 5-27-16. I spoke to a guy who said his name was John. I asked where Nigel was and he said he was being prosecuted for stealing information and giving it to a third party and that a customer had been affected by it. He asked if I bank online and I said yes. He said he needs to access my bank online to put the money back in. Again I was hesitant but I finally decided I would do it just so this would be over with. I told him I wanted a complete refund of everything we had paid them and said he would refund us $1048.00, which was 2 dollars more than what we had given them. He had me open a Western Union account so they could transfer the money through Western Union to my bank account. He had me access my bank account and then blacked out the monitor. When I asked him about this, he said it was so they didn’t see my financials and I didn’t see their financials because he supposedly transferred me over to their refund department. At one point he made it visible again and requested I put in my PIN for my debit card on the screen. He then blacked out my monitor again so I couldn’t see anything. After about 20 minutes or so of my screen being black and me asking him many times how long this was going to take, my screen was then made visible again and he said the money would be in my account in the morning by 10 am, then he changed it and said by 9 AM. He said you call me tomorrow when the money is transferred and tell me it was done. I felt uncomfortable about this so I went to my bank account to sign in. The account looked funny. The name “Checking” was not there and in its place was A A A. I panicked and called the bank and told them the whole story. They said it was just a glitch and that I just needed to log back out and then log back in which I did and everything was back to normal. Because of the story I told them, they transferred me to their Fraud department. That department cancelled my online access and changed the account and went through the transactions with me to make sure everything was ok, which it was. This morning 5-28-16, I received a call from Western Union saying that the money transfer to Thailand that I had authorized was cancelled and the money was put back in my account. I called Western Union to find out what was going on. They said the money transfer was cancelled. I told them I had not authorized a transfer and that money was supposed to be deposited into my account, not taken out. They took my information and gave me a case# to give to the authorities. The case# is 1424451. I told them I want the account I opened yesterday 5-27-15 to be closed, and that I never have or ever would in the future use Western Union so nobody should ever be able to try to get money from me through them again. They said it was closed. I then contacted Tech World America and asked them what they were trying to pull. They said John was on the line and would call me back in 20 minutes (he never did). I proceeded to tell the person on the phone that they were crooks and thieves and that I was going to report them, so I did. I am also going to make a complaint to the ScamPulse.com and whoever else I can so that no one else gets ripped off like we did and hopefully they are all prosecuted. At 11:53 today 5-28-16, I received a call from an unknown number saying he was from Western Union in their claims department or something. In talking to him I told him the person from Western Union (that had given me the case #) had been very unhelpful and wouldn’t tell me how much was attempted to be taken from my account or the person’s name. She said the authorities can use the case # to get that information to discuss with me. He said the amount was $986.00. I thought it was odd that he could tell me but the other woman couldn’t. I also thought the amount was odd. Why not an even $1000.00? He said that they were going to work on getting these guys and that in order to “catch them red handed” he needed my cooperation. He had an India or Asian accent as well and said he needed me to go down to my local Western Union and again send the money to the same person in Thailand so they could catch them when they went to pick it up, at least that’s what it sounded like he was saying. It didn’t make sense so I said “hold on” and then I hung up on him. I looked at my caller ID to see if it said Western Union and it didn’t. He immediately called back and said we were disconnected somehow. I asked him what company he was calling from. He again claimed to be from Western Union. I asked him why his phone number said “Name Unavailable” and he said their department was not a part of Western Union’s customer service. I said “how do I know you’re not part of the scammers”. He proceeded to say something as I again hung up on him. He hasn’t called back.