A Fairbury woman lost hundreds of dollars to a fake tech support offer.
The Better Business Bureau is warning people to be wary.
A woman from Lecompton, Kan., was duped by the same kind of scam, but by telephone.
The woman from Fairbury had trouble with a company called Optimize Pro. Instead of receiving a phone call, she got a “pop-up” on her monitor that said there were viruses on her computer. She clicked on the message, called the number provided and paid $54.95 by credit card for a program the company installed on her PC “to remove the viruses”. Then she paid an additional $287 for a two-year tech support service contract and “enrollment in our automatic renewal service.”
The BBB said an investigation revealed that Optimize Pro is using several business names and websites to hide its actual location and also found various warnings on the Internet indicating their software is malware. These kinds of viruses can change browser settings and reside in the background, blocking access to legitimate antivirus programs. They also can be difficult to detect.
The BBB advised:
* If you receive an unsolicited call (also known as a cold call) or see a “pop-up” on your computer monitor offering tech support, check with the BBB at bbb.org to make sure the company is reputable.
* Never provide your credit card or financial information to someone claiming to be from tech support, unless you initiated the call and are certain who you are dealing with.
* Take down the information about the company’s phone number or website and report it to your BBB, local authorities or the FTC (www.ftc.gov). If you did allow a caller to access your computer:
* Change the passwords for your computer, email and online banking/credit card accounts.
* Be sure to run a virus scan.
* If you suspect your computer is infected by a virus, check with the BBB at bbb.org to find BBB Accredited IT firms that will make sure no programs are running in the background that your virus scan did not detect.
* Consider placing a fraud alert on your credit report if you shared personal and banking information with the scammer.