Security While Browsing Online

No longer is it good enough to simply have an anti-virus or malware program as your defensive weapon to protect you from hackers and bad people.  These are good tools, but knowledge and education is more powerful and required.  

The connected world we live in has propagated many scams and attack methods.  Here is one we've seen recently:

Customers have called us, only after getting warned online that they had been hacked or their computer had been compromised.  Here is a sample picture of the intimidating message you might see: 

​In this scam, the online warning maybe a real virus or bad person attacking your computer, or it may be a script or virus meant to get the user to call the fake “Microsoft support person” (who is part of the scam).  This support person does not work for Microsoft, but pretends to work in order to fix the user’s computer by logging into the machine.  They often talk technical terms for as long as 90 minutes in order to overload and wear out the user, who doesn’t understand what is happening other than they are being helped.  Then, support person closes the deal by finally asking for the person’s credit card info in order to fix the problem.  Overwhelmed and tired, the user gives the credit card to them usually with a exorbitant fee attached ($550 in the fake Microsoft invoice shown below).  

Several problems exist here:

1. Letting someone you don’t know on your computer is very bad.  Did they install malware that will track things in the future?   
2. Who exactly did you call, and how do you know they fixed the problem? 
3. ​You gave a illegitimate support person your credit card, so now you need to cancel that card.  

The worst thing you can do here is letting the internet tell you who to call and give your credit card to, and the 2nd worse thing is to do nothing. That’s always an option, but how do you know you really didn’t get hacked or attacked?  

Instead of calling someone who doesn’t want to understand your needs, and may want to scam you, call a legitimate tech support business such as 208 Pro Tech.  We can help with whatever computer or network problems you face.  We work hard to ensure your needs are met and you are satisfied.  

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