Have you ever received a call, pop-up, or an e-mail informing you of an issue with your PC? The callers or notifications may claim they are from the government or companies like Microsoft. If you recognize this situation, you are not alone. These notifications can be scary and believable, but in most cases, these are scammers trying to steal your money or data.
Things to Know To Avoid a Tech Support Scam
- Most legitimate tech companies won’t contact you by phone, email, or text message to tell you there’s a problem with your computer.
- Security pop-up warnings from real tech companies will never ask you to call a phone number.
- Scammers like to use an urgent situation to scam individuals. If you get an urgent alert, e-mail, or call always verify before reacting to the request.
- Security pop-up warnings from real tech companies will never ask you to call a phone number. If you get a pop-up like that close the alert, and do not call the number.
In most cases, legitimate tech companies won’t contact you by phone, email, or text message to tell you there’s a problem with your computer. If you get a call from Microsoft or the government claiming your device is having issues, hang up the phone. The call is most likely a scam. If you do have an IT company that monitors your PCs and you are notified there is an issue, verify the source first. You can do that by calling the IT company directly and verifying they were the ones who reached out to you. Unfortunately, phone numbers, e-mails, alerts, and text messages can all be spoofed so they can’t be trusted. Verifying is the only way to be safe.
