Tips for victims of tech scams
March 19, 2019by Katie Ritchie
Did you pay a tech support scammer? If the scam took place a long while ago, it may be too late to get your money back, but you can always try. As with any scam, the sooner you react, the better.
If you paid the scammer with a credit or debit card, call the card company or bank. Tell them what happened. See if they can stop the transaction or reverse the charges.
Did you pay with a gift card? Contact the card issuer. Explain you paid a scammer with one of their gift cards. Ask if they will refund your money. Whether they refund you or not depends on the situation. The Federal Trade Commission suggests asking.
Here are the numbers to call for some common gift card companies: Amazon: 888-280-4331, Google Play: 855-466-4438, iTunes: 800-275-2273 say “gift card” and/or press 6 for “other”, and then say “operator” to speak to a rep.
The next steps you should take should be protecting your computer or device. First, change any passwords you gave the scammer. If you use that password for anything else, change it there, too.
If you gave the scammer remote access to your computer, run your antivirus and malware scanners.
Remove anything it flags as a problem.