For example, the next screenshot shows the same page as above, but the language and phone number have been adjusted. Scammers often adjust their scam websites to reflect differences in geographic regions to better trick victims into believing they're seeing authentic errors. While researching an increase in scams that target the Norton brand, NortonLifeLock Threat Labs also observed tech scams that target customers of Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.
They are a global problem potentially affecting everyone. Tech support scams don’t necessarily target specific individuals or even actual customers of the brands that they impersonate.
Or they might show a Windows “blue screen of death”, an error screen displayed on Windows following a fatal system error. Most often the error messages contain fake virus warnings or highlight outdated antivirus software.
#Tech utilities scam software
The scam site tries to impersonate real error messages designed to trick you into believing they're genuine software support services on behalf of major technology companies. The process begins when you visit such a site, where you will be redirected to a different site that hosts the technical support scam. These fraudulent companies have grown savvier and adopted more aggressive tactics to lure vulnerable consumers. Technical support scams have been around for years, but they’ve been rapidly increasing in popularity, especially on unlicensed streaming sites for movies and sporting events, and other scam sites. You have come across a “technical support scam,” and it is perfectly safe to simply close the browser.