The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued an alert about the rise in technical support scams spreading across the country.
FBI field offices in Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Boston and Chicago continue to warn the public of heightened fraud and cyber security risks.
Scammer Payback
According to the FBI bulletin, the technical support scam involves a cybercriminal posing as technical support offering to resolve issues such as compromised email or bank accounts, computer viruses, or software renewals.
“You may be on your computer, and you may get a pop-up,” said Ashley Johnson, the acting special agent in charge of the Chicago division. “And this pop-up will tell them, ‘Hey, your accounts have been hacked. Call this number.’ And [the scammers] will represent themselves as a reputable software company.”
Recent FBI statistics reported that Americans lost nearly a quarter billion dollars last year from this scam alone — an increase of over 137% compared to last year.
YouTube star Pierogi, who runs a YouTube channel called “Scammer Payback,” which posts videos of phone calls with scammers, told ABC News he first noticed an uptick in this type of scam earlier this year.
He shared a screenshot of a “pop-up alert” scam he received on his computer that claimed to be from Microsoft and directed him to call a phone number for support.
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