Trending
What’s come across our desks this week for scams? Well, according to the Customer Support team for PC Matic, these are the most frequent.
There are two companies in particular we’re seeing scams pop up. Garmin and Netgear customers are finding their way to fraudulent support sites. Additionally, router support scams are on the rise. All three of these are avoidable.
Education Is Key
Making sure you keep yourself educated on how to avoid scams is key. Some tips on avoiding scams:
- Never do a search for tech support – If you want support from a company, go to their verified website and go through the website’s support system.
- Do not give your payment information to anyone claiming to be support – Most companies offer support for their products free of charge. If someone asks you for payment information, hang up and go to the company’s verified website.
- Do not give device access to anyone claiming to be support – Unless you’ve gone through the verified website of a company and reached out to them, giving access to your device could find you being locked out by a hacker.
- Do not click on email attachments – Phishing is when a scammer sends out email attachments hoping someone will click. These often run malicious scripts on your machine. A default-deny antivirus product like PC Matic will keep these from taking over your machine, but you’re the first line of defense against phishing attacks.
- Trust your intuition – If something doesn’t feel right, trust your intuition. It’s better to have to start a support ticket over than to be scammed out of money.
A great antivirus product is a key part of your security profile. You, however, are ultimately the one running your programs. Making sure you keep yourself safe from scammers only takes a little research.
Stay safe out there.
