Big Box Tech Support Scams

Last week The Register reported on some big box stores taking advantage of tech-ignorant consumers.

To quote from the article:

Office Depot and Support.com have coughed up $35m after they were accused of lying to people that their PCs were infected with malware in order to charge them cleanup fees…

“In numerous instances throughout this time period, Defendants used the PC Health Check Program to report to Office Depot Companies customers that the scan had found or identified ‘Malware Symptoms’ when it had not done so,” the complaint stated. “Additionally, in numerous instances, the PC Health Check Program falsely reported to consumers that the program had found ‘infections’ on the consumer’s computer. ”

The gist of it is that these companies allegedly scammed consumers by finding “signs” of malware on PCs. This is a diagnosis so broad that we could probably manage to diagnose every computer in America as having “signs” of malware.

The takeaway from the case is that for individual consumers and small businesses (small enough to be relying on Office Max/Depot for IT Support) is it incredibly difficult to find reliable and trustworthy support. It’s a lot like bringing your car to a mechanic: unless you know something about cars — and specifically what they are speaking to you about — you just have to trust what they say. Unfortunately, in IT the demand is greater than the supply making it much easier for unscrupulous people to operate in the space.

If you think you’re being had give us a call. Even if you aren’t a fit for us a customer, let us introduce you to a local company that you can count on.