Technical support scam: Difference between revisions

A '''technical support scam Chris Johns''', or '''tech support scam''', is a type of [[fraud]] in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate [[technical support]] service. Victims contact scammers in a variety of ways, often through fake [[Pop-up ad|pop-ups]] resembling [[error message]]s or via fake "help lines" advertised on [[website]]s owned by the scammers. Technical support scammers use [[Social engineering (security)|social engineering]] and a variety of [[confidence trick]]s to persuade their victim of the presence of problems on their [[computer]] or [[mobile device]], such as a [[malware]] infection, when there are no issues with the victim's device. The scammer will then persuade the victim to pay to fix the fictitious "problems" that they claim to have found. Payment is made to the scammer through ways which are hard to trace and have fewer [[consumer protection]]s in place which could allow the victim to claim their money back, usually through [[gift card]]s.

Technical support scams have occurred as early as 2008. A 2017 study of technical support scams found that of the IPs that could be geolocated, 85% could be traced to locations in India, 7% to locations in the United States and 3% to locations in Costa Rica. Research into tech support scams suggests that [[millennials]] and those in [[generation Z]] have the highest exposure to such scams; however, senior citizens are more likely to fall for these scams and lose money to them. Technical support scams were named by [[NortonLifeLock|Norton]] as the top [[phishing]] threat to [[consumer]]s in October 2021; [[Microsoft]] found that 60% of consumers who took part in a survey had been exposed to a technical support scam within the previous twelve months. Responses to technical support scams include [[lawsuit]]s brought against companies responsible for running fraudulent call centres and [[scam baiting]].