Our sharp-eyed reader Sue has learned from reading our tips. She writes: “My roommate, with Macbook pro, had a pop-up tonight saying he had 3 viruses and to contact a number on the pop up about this. He contacted them and I heard him giving them personal information but at the time, I thought he was talking with someone he had worked with in the past from Apple. He gave them access to his computer, he gave them passwords, and then when he attempted to scan a check for payment of these services, I got very suspicious. Payment was $750. I jumped in and told him I felt he was involved in a scam, and he gave the phone to me. The individual on the other end was very resistant to my calling this a scam, and I just simply hung up on her. The name of the company is One Stop Computer Garage LLC. They have a Facebook page and a website. On the website, it would appear they are out of the Philippines. On Facebook, it looks like they are in Ohio. But we both know how you can fake things on Facebook. I had him turn off his computer immediately, and he’s using my computer right now to change his bank password. Have you heard of this scam? And God forbid are you aware whether or not this could possibly be legitimate? $750 pretty much proves to me that they aren’t legitimate. In addition, she also wanted to send him some “gift” and he was about to give them our home address. Pass this along to your readers? Thank you so much. “
You know a scam when you see it. I guarantee that the pop-up did not come from the MacBook. It was simply a phishing expedition designed to make your roomie think he was dealing with legitimate Apple tech support. And you are absolutely right, the cost is a dead giveaway that this is some type of scam.
If you think there’s a problem with your computer, run you own security program or look up the legitimate tech support number for your device. Make sure you don’t fall for look-alike fake results on search engines.
Your roommate may have compromised things like his banking information be allowing these people onto his Mac. He needs to change the password to all of his accounts ASAP. I would put an immediate stop-payment on that check. The next step would be to take the Mac to a trustworthy local tech to make sure these people haven’t installed anything harmful.
It’s possible this outfit does offer some type of legitimate tech support (at an extremely exorbitant rate), but the shifty way they go about getting business tells you they can’t be trusted.
I have been having contact with a company called OmniTech. They seem to be legitimate. Do you know anything about them? Thank you
Pat:
What do you mean by contact? My first question would be, did you call them or did they contact you?
I get phone calls all the time and the one on the other end tells me he is calling about my computer, they always talk in broken English and I tell them that I threw my computer out years ago and went to using a slide rule. Sometimes I just tell them they are crooks and to get off my phone. Sues room mate was not using his brain , and sometimes we get stuck in reverse . I just hope it was not to expensive of a lesson.
How long are we going to have to continue to warn people that Apple, Microsoft, IBM, HP, etc. do NOT monitor personal computers? People have been warned for YEARS and yet they continue to fall for these tactics.
When I get one of those calls purporting to be from Microsoft and they have detected a problem and I need to turn on my pc immediately I just ask them “what computer?” They always stumbled and fumble around and in their bad, broken English thank me and hang up.
The other day I actually put on a terrible fake Russian accent and let the guy walk me through what I was supposed to do on the PC. It was kind of fun.
Your Link: Make sure you don’t fall… has gone bad. I get a “This page can’t be opened” page with the note: •Make sure the web address http://www.wohttp is correct.