Legitimate customer and tech support representatives will never initiate unsolicited contact with customers. “Anyone who is a victim of this type of intrusion should report the compromise to us to help prevent these predators from victimizing others, and potentially from re-victimizing you.” Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division. In some cases, we’ve seen victims lose their entire life savings which is why we are urging everyone, especially our aging family members and friends, to heed this warning,” said Joseph R. “Cybercriminals are constantly coming up with new ways to rip off unsuspecting consumers, and this latest tactic has resulted in staggering losses. Scammers are also asking victims to install free, remote desktop software on their computers to allow them to monitor, manipulate, and perform actions within the victims’ computers such as opening virtual currency accounts to facilitate the liquidation of their genuine bank accounts. Fraudsters will create fictitious support sites to entice crypto owners to contact them directly and convince them to divulge login information or surrender control of their crypto accounts. Victims are often directed to wire or transfer their funds out of brokerage or bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges, or to transfer the contents of their crypto wallet to another wallet to “safeguard” the contents. Once they convince victims that their financial accounts have been compromised and their funds need to be moved, they gain control over the victims’ computers and ultimately their finances.
They may call, email, or text their targets and offer to resolve such issues as a compromised email or bank account, a computer virus, or a software license renewal.
In tech support scams, fraudsters pose as customer or tech support representatives from reputable well-known tech companies. Investigators are seeing an emerging trend in which tech support scammers are convincing victims that their financial accounts have been compromised and their funds need to be moved so the fraudsters can gain control over the victims’ computers and finances. The Boston Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning that as tech support fraud evolves, the number of people falling victim to the crime is on the rise, and so are financial losses.
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