AnyTech 365 Scam? Search for information.

Anonymous
2021-04-23T10:03:34+00:00

Hello

Working in IT myself I got a couple of reports during the last year about a quite interesting "thing" (I think it's some kind of scam scheme) called "AnyTech 365". It's not your "typical" Microsoft phone call scam but something quite a bit more sophisticated.

Interestingly there is/was only very limited information available on line.

The "thing" (suspected scam) goes like this:

Inexperienced users get prompted with misleading information (probably in the form of advertisement they don't recognize a such) which leads them to download some shady "pc repair software" (the name "Restoro" came up a couple of times). Once they run this software they are asked to contact a "support company" called AnyTech365. The people from AnyTech365 then try to sell them an expensive & long-running subscription for support services, usually costing a couple of hundred dollars (one "victim" reported that they even paid several thousand dollars).

Now the thing is: This company AnyTech365 which is located in Spain acts like a reputable business. So it's not some unknown Indian call center that disappears after a few weeks. They are registered and seem to be in for the long run - giving the impression of a "real" IT service provider. Just that their customers don't seem to become customers "voluntarily" but through very misleading sales practices.

At least this is what it looks like after gathering information from a couple of "victims".

Since there wasn't much information about this (suspected) scam scheme available I posted a similar thread like this in the German language Microsoft Community Forums in December. This lead to reports from more people who felt that they were scammed by AnyTech365 and also to a recation from a public relations person from Any Tech 365 who of course was claiming that they are a legitimate company. (However that person also referred to a certification agency called "App Esteem" which seems to be specialised in the "fake" certifictaion of very shady software - so we probably have to assume that a company that gets certidication from "App Esteem" is probably shady too.)

Anyway, since AnyTech365 seems to be active in a lot of languages & countries I thought that I also post this here in the English speaking community.

So we might get a bigger audience and can gather more information about this suspected scam.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-01T11:16:04+00:00

    This discussion here is about the real company. And it obviously is not slander because there are several matching "first hand" descriptions from "victims" of the company. Those descriptions give a quite clear picture of unethical and fraudulent behaviour by AnyTech365.

    I first posted this not only in English. But the English version is the only one where a lot of people seem to connect the name AnyTech365 to SPAM mail. This is why I wanted to make clear that those SPAM mails may be a different scam which is not connected to the real company. But this discussion here should be about the alleged scam by the real company.

    So all the information that I have provided so far is accurate. But I'm not only here to provide information, my main interest is to gather information. Because AnyTech365 seems to be very clever when it comes to downplay allegations and act like a reputable company.

    Two variations of the alleged fraud have been identified so far according to the reports that "victims" made:

    1. Misleading advertising (camouflaged as "error messages") is used to get inexperienced users to download some "cleaning" or "repair" software. This software then misrepresents the status of the user's computer and asks him to get in contact with AnyTech365. The AnyTech call center operator then does a remote connection and again misrepresents the status of the user's computer in order to get him to subscribe to a "support contract". We have seen examples where "victims" said that they have been talked into such contracts that cost more than 1000$
    2. AnyTech acts as outsourced "support" for software vendors. So if somebody for example wants to renew his Panda Anti Virus license by phone he has to go via AnyTech 365. Once they have that caller on the hook, they seem to pull off the same scheme as described in 1: Doing a free checkup by remote connection. Making up some things that have to be taken care of. Talking the user into subscribing to a support contract.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-06-01T13:59:22+00:00

    ... and it only gets better. The more you search, the more you find:

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-01T17:12:30+00:00

    Yes, I'm not surprised.

    AnyTech365 seems to cooperate with a couple of shady "repair" or "cleaning" tools in order to acquire new "victims".

    The self proclaimed "repair tool" called Restoro was also mentioned in another report. The "victim" downloaded the tool because of misleading advertising and then the tool made up some false positives in order to get the user to pay. Then he was "turned over" to AnyTech365 for what seems to be the next step of the scam: A Subscription to an expensive "support contract".

    AnyTech365 always praises themselves to be "certified" by a company called AppEsteem. But if you look at the list of Apps that AppEsteem certified... well it looks like a comprehensive collection of all fraudulent "system repair", "driver updater" and "system clean" tools there are.

    It doesn't come as a surprise that "iobit" and "Restoro" are certified as well ;-)

    Next to all that other shady stuff.

    Who knows: Maybe most of that stuff even originates from the same source...

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-06-02T05:42:14+00:00

    Hopefully, as you stated in the German thread, the discussion stays as one of the top hits if people search for Anytech365. Also, I hope the majority of these same people take the reviews from Trustpilot with a pinch of salt and find the buried negative posts. Anytech's employees must have been working overtime to create 9000+ positive reviews!

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-06-06T07:01:41+00:00

    Just a follow up to this, they are trying a different scam but using the same phone number.

    Now they are sending out emails as invoices for MacBooks and saying you paid via PayPal. If you have concerns call the same phone number as they AnyTech scam.

    Same people, different grift. Just a heads up.

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