Windows Support Scam - I was called by someone who said they were windows support and my computer was sending them warnings and messages!

On Saturday July 18, 2015, I went on YouTube to research cars, I didn’t click on any advertisement, I only clicked on a channel called Motorman, watched his video, because, he is very thorough in his explanations. I also looked at other videos about car performances. I left the youyube tab, clicked the plus sign of the browser to open a new tab. Once did that, a popup was displayed with a blue screen, stating “Thus site found that my computer was contaminated with a virus to call Microsof at 1 (855) 922-7632”, I call the number thinking Microsoft. I called the number, because, I am using a pre released version of Windows 10, and expected to be helped.

When I called, the woman on the line told me my computer was infected with a  virus, of course it is, they planted it on youtube, otherwise, they have no way of knowing, and display their number, for the victim to call them. She tried to convince me to connect my tablet to the infected computer, I told her no, unless I can find one that I have never used to do banking with, or anything personal. I also told her what she was asking me to do didn’t make any sense. The reason I even entertained that idea was because, I thought it was Microsoft, since they didn’t tell me who they were. My mind was in a fog also, because, of personal worries.

I allowed her to access the computer, she ran a few scripts, and she told me to wait, she was going to escalate, because, she needed someone with more expertise. She called the tech, and all he did was browse my computer, and it seems to me he deleted the virus they implanted into the machine. He also transferred some file, but I wasn’t fast enough to catch with my camera, but was able to capture the window.

The tech didn’t run any antivirus on the machine, all he did was transfer some of my personal information to their site, clean their footprint the best he could, and still leave their communication program running. I feel this company creates viruses to get unsuspecting people to call, they retriever your personal information, keep monitoring your computer, and bill you.

After all this, I thought I iTechHelps was done with the machine, and gone. For some reason, I was feeling I was just conned. I tried to call Microsoft again, and that company had the same goal, I allowed them into the machine, when they install their so called Antivirus program, and Registry cleaning program, and started their cleaning process. They somewhat mimic what a person should do when a computer is infected. Then they asked me for money using the same line as the iTechHelps, and I pulled the plug on them, I turned down their services, and shut own the machine.

After I shut down the machine, I gathered my thoughts over what just happened to me, I am ashamed to admit, because, I am a computer programmer, and should have known better. Those companies have only one purpose, create viruses, have the unsuspecting naïve computer user call, they still your identity, while they bill your credit card.

I left the machine as evidence, I didn’t change much if anything, in case it is needed by the authorities.

I have pictures I took of them milling about in the machine and a billing email they sent me, please help put these people out of business.

 Why is Microsoft allowing those thieves to use the company name?