{"id":11642,"date":"2020-03-02T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/stage\/?p=11642"},"modified":"2020-02-28T15:37:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T22:37:40","slug":"ftc-sends-57960-refunds-to-tech-support-scam-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/ftc-sends-57960-refunds-to-tech-support-scam-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC Sends 57,960 Refunds to Tech Support Scam Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt;\"><button id=\"listenButton1\" class=\"responsivevoice-button\" type=\"button\" value=\"Play\" title=\"ResponsiveVoice Tap to Start\/Stop Speech\"><span>&#128266; Listen to Post<\/span><\/button>\n        <script>\n            listenButton1.onclick = function(){\n                if(responsiveVoice.isPlaying()){\n                    responsiveVoice.cancel();\n                }else{\n                    responsiveVoice.speak(\"Tech support scams are nothing new. They\\'ve been around for ages. I am sure you have seen a popup window telling you that your computer has been infected with virus, or you have some other security issue, and you are asked to purchase tech support service to fix the problem (which you don\\'t have). Of course, no one is running an antivirus scan on your computer, it\\'s a deceptive way to con innocent people who fall for these scams. Recently, FTC filed a case against the scammers who, in addition to popup windows, were also running deceptive ads on Google and other search engines to give an impression that the ads are from major corporations. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), \\\"The ads and popups claimed to be from major tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple and tricked consumers into calling the defendants and buying tech support services that consumers did not need.\\\" These crooks have been operating under Click4Support, LLC and other names. If you are curious, you can check out all the other business names that they\\'ve used and the names of the owners of these companies on the FTC\\'s website. Makes you wonder, did these scammers not know that sooner or later they will get caught? FTC Refunds FTC is sending refunds totaling more than $1.7 million to 57,960 people who were victims of the tech support scams. Out of the 57,960 people, 57,813 will receive a PayPal payment because FTC doesn\\'t have the mailing addresses of these people. The remaining 147 people will receive a payment in the form of check. If you are among the victims, make sure you cash your check within 60 days. If you receive a PayPal payment make sure you accept the payment within 30 days. If you are wondering if FTC sends out PayPal payments, visit this FAQ page. If you want to apply for a refund in an FTC case, visit this page. If you have any questions about the refunds, call the refund administrator at 1-877-389-4472. Last year FTC sent out more than $232 million in refunds to consumers across the United States. Avoid Being a Victim of Tech Support Scams Here\\'s some helpful information from the FTC on how to avoid being a victim of these scams. Blog: Avoid a tech trap Tech Support Scams Infographic: How to Spot a Tech Support Scam Click on the above image to download the infographic. FTC\\'s website is loaded with some very useful information. I encourage you to visit their site. They have lots of good resources, tips, and advice for consumers that you will appreciate. Thanks for reading my article. If you are interested in IT training & consulting services, please reach out to me. Visit ZubairAlexander.com for information on my professional background. Copyright \u00a9 2020 SeattlePro Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved.\", \"US English Male\");\n                }\n            };\n        <\/script>\n    <\/p>\n<p>Tech support scams are nothing new. They&#8217;ve been around for ages. I am sure you have seen a popup window telling you that your computer has been infected with virus, or you have some other security issue, and you are asked to purchase tech support service to fix the problem (which you don&#8217;t have). Of course, no one is running an antivirus scan on your computer, it&#8217;s a deceptive way to con innocent people who fall for these scams.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, FTC filed a case against the scammers who, in addition to popup windows, were also running deceptive ads on Google and other search engines to give an impression that the ads are from major corporations. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), &#8220;The ads and popups claimed to be from major tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple and tricked consumers into calling the defendants and buying tech support services that consumers did not need.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These crooks have been operating under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/enforcement\/cases-proceedings\/152-3172-x160004\/click4support-llc?utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click4Support, LLC<\/a> and other names. If you are curious, you can check out all the other business names that they&#8217;ve used and the names of the owners of these companies on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/enforcement\/cases-proceedings\/152-3172-x160004\/click4support-llc?utm_source=govdelivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FTC&#8217;s website<\/a>. Makes you wonder, did these scammers not know that sooner or later they will get caught?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11645\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/ftc-protecting-americas-consumers.png\" alt=\"FTC - Protecting America's Consumers\" width=\"486\" height=\"99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/ftc-protecting-americas-consumers.png 486w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/ftc-protecting-americas-consumers-300x61.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><strong>FTC Refunds<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>FTC is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2020\/02\/ftc-sends-refund-checks-tech-support-scam-victims\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sending refunds<\/a> totaling more than $1.7 million to 57,960 people who were victims of the tech support scams. Out of the 57,960 people, 57,813 will receive a PayPal payment because FTC doesn&#8217;t have the mailing addresses of these people. The remaining 147 people will receive a payment in the form of check. If you are among the victims, make sure you cash your check within 60 days. If you receive a PayPal payment make sure you accept the payment within 30 days. If you are wondering if FTC sends out PayPal payments, visit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/faq\/consumer-protection\/does-ftc-ever-use-paypal-send-refunds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FAQ page<\/a>. If you want to apply for a refund in an FTC case, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/faq\/consumer-protection\/apply-refund-ftc-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any questions about the refunds, call the refund administrator at 1-877-389-4472. Last year FTC sent out more than $232 million in refunds to consumers across the United States.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Avoid Being a Victim of Tech Support Scams<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some helpful information from the FTC on how to avoid being a victim of these scams.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"field field-name-field-consumer-resource field-type-link-field field-label-above field-wrapper\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/blog\/2017\/05\/avoid-tech-trap\">Blog: Avoid a tech trap<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/articles\/0346-tech-support-scams\">Tech Support Scams<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/articles\/0557-infographic-how-spot-tech-support-scam\">Infographic: How to Spot a Tech Support Scam<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/sites\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/files\/articles\/pdf\/0557-how-to-spot-tech-support-scam.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11652\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ftc-infographic.png\" alt=\"FTC Infographic - How to Spot a Tech Support Scam\" width=\"823\" height=\"888\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ftc-infographic.png 823w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ftc-infographic-278x300.png 278w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/ftc-infographic-768x829.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 823px) 100vw, 823px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Click on the above image to download the infographic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FTC&#8217;s website<\/a> is loaded with some very useful information. I encourage you to visit their site. They have lots of good resources, tips, and advice for consumers that you will appreciate.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color: #e3e3e3; text-align: left;\">Thanks for reading my article. If you are interested in IT training &amp; consulting services, please reach out to me. Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ZubairAlexander.com<\/a> for information on my professional background.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small; font-family: Verdana;\">Copyright \u00a9 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattlepro.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SeattlePro Enterprises, LLC<\/a>. All rights reserved.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tech support scams are nothing new. They&#8217;ve been around for ages. I am sure you have seen a popup window telling you that your computer has been infected with virus, or you have some other security issue, and you are asked to purchase tech support service to fix the problem (which you don&#8217;t have). Of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,7,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-news","category-security"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Security2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}