Technical support scam
Payment is made to the scammer via gift cards or cryptocurrency, which are hard to trace and have few consumer protections in place.
Technical support scams rely on social engineering to persuade victims that their device is infected with malware.
They will use several methods to misrepresent the content and significance of common Windows tools and system directories as evidence of malicious activity, such as viruses and other malware.
[21] These tricks are meant to target victims who may be unfamiliar with the actual uses of these tools, such as inexperienced users and senior citizens.
[41] Gift cards are favoured by scammers because they are readily available to buy and have less consumer protections in place that could allow the victim to reclaim their money back.
Additionally, the usage of gift cards as payment allows the scammers to extract money quickly whilst remaining anonymous.
[42][43] Tech support scammers have also been known to ask for payment in the form of cryptocurrency, cheques and direct bank transfers made through automated clearing house (the latter only gives victims 60 days to recover their funds).
Scammers may also resort to bullying, coercion, threats and other forms of intimidation and psychological abuse towards their target in an effort to undermine the victim's ability to think clearly, making them more likely to be forced further into the scam.
Microsoft commissioned a survey by YouGov across 16 countries in July 2021 to research tech support scams and their impact on consumers.
[56] In December 2014, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a California-based company operating such scams for "misusing Microsoft's name and trademarks" and "creating security issues for victims by gaining access to their computers and installing malicious software, including a password grabber that could provide access to personal and financial information".
[61] Major search engines such as Bing and Google have taken steps to restrict the promotion of fake technical support websites through keyword advertising.
[62][63] Google announced a verification program in 2018 in an attempt to restrict advertising for third-party tech support to legitimate companies.
[66][67] Advanced scam baiters may infiltrate the scammer's computer, and potentially disable it by deploying remote access trojans, distributed denial of service attacks and destructive malware.
[68] Scam baiters may also attempt to lure scammers into exposing their unethical practices by leaving dummy files or malware disguised as confidential information[69] such as credit/debit card information and passwords on a virtual machine, which the scammer may attempt to steal, only to become infected.
Through the aid of the British documentary programme Panorama, a police raid was carried out when the documentary was brought to the attention of assistant police commissioner Karan Goel,[70] leading to the arrest of call centre operator Amit Chauhan who also operated a fraudulent travel agency under the name "Faremart Travels".
