Ammyy.com
Consumer Report

We got a a phone call which my mother picked up. It was from a man claiming to be from tech support saying that our computer had downloaded a bunch of viruses. She already was suspicious since she'd heard of a scam involving such a setup, so she gave the phone to me since I am a computer science student and told the man that. He had a very thick Indian accent so that it was hard for me to understand him. I asked who was calling and he said Windows support, which automatically made me suspicious. I let him direct me to get into the information log of my mother's computer, at which ppint he tried to scare me about errors and warnings, claiming that any errors and warnings in the log meant that there were viruses infecting the hard drive. Of course I knew better since there are several reasons why errors occur, many of them not involving viruses, and these few didn't look virus-related. He tried to get me to give permission to access the computer remotely but I refused on the grounds that I had no proof that he was who he said he was and I wasn't about to let a stranger access the computer. Then he directed me to ammyy.com. I googled it and came up with lots of information about it being a scam, so then I told him I knew it was a scam and hung up. I then read frightening things about what would have happened if I had let him go through with it-it sounds like he was trying to get me to download software-he kept saying he needed to scan the computer-but this software itself would infect the computer. Some people have also had their credit card infromation stolen. I am posting this mostly to warn other people about it. Windows is a Microsoft product. There is no "Windows support". There is certainly Microsoft support, but I've never heard of them calling up a customer out of the blue like that. Also, if someone really was from Microsoft support they'd direct you to Microsoft's website-if someone calls you up like that claiming to be from Windows or Microsoft and directs you to a web site which doesn't have microsoft.com somewhere in the domain name be wary. Also, public service information: don't download antivirus or scan software if you get a popup window not from your own antivirus program telling you that your system is infected and you need to download xyz software to get rid of the infections, for that is a very common scam. This is a new one for me and one that sounds like it would get a lot of traction if they can get people to trust them/confuse and scare them into thinking their computer is full of viruses. Bottom line: if someone calls you up out of the blue claiming to be tech support and they're not from your local ISP, be very wary. It's probably a scam.

Company: Ammyy.com
Country: USA
State: WA
City: Seattle
ZIP: 98101
Address: 600 University St
Phone: 7035961166
Site: ammyy.com

  <     >