MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — The Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection is warning residents to be wary of people trying to scam you by posing as computer tech support.
Spokesman Jerad Albracht says the scammers will call you claiming to be from an official sounding company and say you’ve got a virus on your computer. “They’re basically trying to get you to give them access to your computer.”
The scammers will ask you to open up your computer to a remote desktop program like GoToMeeting or TeamViewer and then start looking around your computer while you’re on the phone. Albracht says they’re looking for something harmless like scary looking error logs or registry errors. “After a while they’ll tell you they can fix things or they have them fixed by deleting some of those relatively harmless error files on your computer, and they’ll ask for a credit card for their ‘services’.”
Giving them that credit card can be doubly harmful because now those scammers have access to both your files and your banking information. Albracht says that makes it easy for the scammers to commmit identity theft, install malware on your computer, or any number of other malicious things.
Albracht says coming at a person who may not know much about the computer they use can be a scary and effective tactic. “For some people that might be confusing, and it may be just enough to tip them into doing something they usually wouldn’t do, which is trust someone they have no relationship with.” If you are worried about your computer, Albracht says you should take it to a reliable local repair shop for help.
If you have any questions you can find out more by calling the DATCP helpline at 1-800-422-7128 or log on to their website at http://datcp.wi.gov.
