{"id":698,"date":"2022-05-26T14:26:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T19:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/?p=698"},"modified":"2023-03-23T23:26:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T04:26:03","slug":"identifying-tech-support-scams-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/blog\/identifying-tech-support-scams-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying Tech Support Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><\/h2>\n<h1><strong>Identifying Tech Support Scams<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t experienced a tech support scam yet, chances are you know someone who has. In 2021,<span style=\"color: #000080;\"> <a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalinformationworld.com\/2022\/04\/losses-from-tech-support-scams.html\">losses from tech support scams increased by 127 percent<\/a><\/span>. They are a type of <a href=\"https:\/\/consumer.ftc.gov\/features\/imposter-scams\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">imposter scam<\/span><\/a>, when a scammer pretends to be someone you trust to send them money. A tech support scammer uses a variety of <a title=\"Don\u2019t Get Hooked: Phishing, Vishing &amp; Smishing\" href=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/dont-get-hooked-phishing-vishing-smishing\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">phishing, vishing and smishing tactics<\/span><\/a> via phone call, voice message, email, or pop-up browsers to trick you into believing there is an urgent problem with your device that can be quickly fixed for a fee. Tech support scammers earn their name by posing as support staff from legitimate companies. Their high pressure scare tactics can be extremely convincing that there is a serious issue with your device.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-699\" src=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-300x75.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"996\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-1024x256.png 1024w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-1536x384.png 1536w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-2048x512.png 2048w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-Tech-Support-Scam-image-1920x480.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 996px) 100vw, 996px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>HOW TO AVOID TECH SUPPORT SCAMS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Many attacks start with annoying pop-up windows that are difficult to ignore and move on to more personalized tactics such as manipulating your cursor. Their end goal is to gain access to your personal data or render your device useless to get money from you. Here\u2019s what the <a href=\"https:\/\/consumer.ftc.gov\/consumer-alerts\/2022\/05\/shutting-down-tech-support-scams\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">FTC suggests you can do to avoid tech support scams<\/span><\/a>:<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-700\" src=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic-120x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1012\" height=\"2530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic-120x300.png 120w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic-410x1024.png 410w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic-768x1920.png 768w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic-614x1536.png 614w, https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2023\/03\/Tech-Support-Scams-Infographic.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1012px) 100vw, 1012px\" \/><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>TECH SUPPORT YOU CAN TRUST<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The best way to avoid tech support scams is by knowing what technical support is available to you and understanding how it works. No legitimate tech support will ever contact you without you contacting them first. Luckily,<span style=\"color: #000080;\"> our cybersecurity solutions<\/span> proactively block fake websites set up by tech support scammers. If you come across a website that seems malicious you can report it to our Help Desk team.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, if you ever need technical support from CMIT, please contact us directly at 781-350-3438.\u00a0 From all of us here at CMIT Boston Cambridge, stay safe both online and off.<\/p>\n<p>Written by: <a title=\"About\" href=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/about\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Chris Zambuto<\/span><\/a> | Chief Information Security Officer <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CMITBostonCambridge\/\">@<\/a><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CMITBostonCambridge\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">CMITBostonCambridge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Identifying Tech Support Scams If you haven\u2019t experienced a tech support scam&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/boston-ma-1089\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}