Tech Support Scammers hit thousands of victims

Tech support scammers are getting fearless and less tech-savvy users are falling prey to their traps. Fear of getting your device possessed by a virus or malware is a threat multiplier and a potent tool to stimulate panic among common users. Tech scammers have mastered the practice of instigating extreme fear to escalate pressure over their victims.

Symantec Tech researchers are quite familiar with fake unwanted applications used to trick potential victims out of their money, but what drawn their close attention is how the scammers are luring their prey into a potential trap. They’ve employed a rather more sophisticated method of using JavaScript and HTML code to replicate scanning process that looks incredibly realistic.

Tech support scam

Tech scams are getting trickier with genuine-looking fake Norton Scans

Tech scammers, instead of fabricating their own genuine-looking Anti-virus program that nobody ever heard of, they are shamelessly copying Symantec’s own Norton Security Products to make their scan look authentic. Like most of the tech scams, this one depends on catching some potential victim off-guard. While the scan looks authentic, the virus alert that appears on-screen is clearly coming from a web browser and not via Anti-virus software.

People browsing on their PCs or Macs are seeing pop-up ads with an ominous voice, indicating a virus threat, saying “this virus is sending your bank details, credit card details, Facebook login and email IDs to an unknown person remotely”. That is, unless you make a phone call on the number given to you for a tech support service to prevent this attempt of data theft. But, the fact is, there is no virus at all. Tech Support scammers are just trying to get in touch with you via phone call to trick you out of money.

To get Norton support visit Norton.com/setup

The illusion is so mesmerizing that even a computer expert would find it difficult to identify it. Symantec Researchers managed to access a web-based dashboard used by one scammer to keep an eye on the scams.

The incident affected tens of thousands of victims, tens of thousands of dollars are being earned without making a single fraud telephonic conversation. That is the strength of a single scammer, think about a small unit of them and we are never safe in the digital realm. Symantec products blocked PUA installations more than 89 million times within the last 3 months of 2018 alone.