My experience and emotions are similar to previous reports about the Pccare247 aka Pcplanet247 online computer repair. On Christmas eve 2010 I was experiencing computer problems and I Googled for computer support and found at the top of the response what I thought was Dell computer support. I was connected to someone who sounded like he was from India which I heard was to be expected. I gave him permission to access my computer and after a short time I was hearing "Oh my God, look at all these Russian and Asian hijackers and all the viruses! Your computer is in danger of crashing if we don't do something now!" At that point he shows me a webpage with package deals and I notice that the address is pccare247. When I ask about that he says they work with Dell. I am not computer savvy and half to admit panicked at the thought of losing what is on the computer. He talked me into the 3 year package for $299 and he continued the repairs. As I am watching him work on the computer, I am beginning to have second thoughts but he is not on the phone for me to talk with and besides he has my money for the repair and control of my computer. After about an hour and half I have my computer back and he calls to let me know and asks if everthing is working OK, like the internet, Outlook. I tell him OK and I again express my concerns about the charge and he reminds me he has fixed the computer and if I had someone else do the repairs it would have cost me about $75/hour and with the 3 year package I was money ahead. He gave me a phone number but I never called it because my computer was working better than it had in a long time.
Fast forward to June when I received an email from family members that their computer had sent out emails to their contact list, my computer is running slow, and other issues are happening, and then I get a call on July 7 from pcplanet247 stating that his call is a courtesy call because their records are showing serious computer problems in my area. He got on my computer to check things out and again I was told I have hijackers and a trojan virus. He showed me a Google page with csrss. Exe equated with viruses and then showed me the pcplanet247 page with package deals. He told me he can fix my computer for $95.99. When I asked him why my 3 year repair package for "unlimited incidents" wouldn't cover the repair, he told me that package doesn't cover this problem and asked if I had anything in writing. At that point I thought about just shutting down the computer but I wasn't sure what he could or would do with my computer from his end so I ended up paying him to make the repairs. As I sat and watched him I was alarmed when he uninstalled AVG to install a program. When he called back I asked him about the AVG and he said he had to but that it was reinstalled which I later found out it wasn't. I now have icons on my desktop for AdvancedSystemCare4, QuickCare, SmartDefrag2, and a folder entitled PCPlanet Reg Backup and also a program for IOBit toolbar 4.5. From my research I am finding I paid for free downloads and that csrss. Exe is also "an essential user-mode portion of the Win32 subsystem".
I called the bank to stop the charge but it had gone through so I froze that account and now will have to wait for the statement to challenge the charge.
Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me... I can guarantee there will not be a third time with pccare247 or pcplanet247 or whatever name they come up with next.
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