About Tech-Support Scams and How to Detect Them

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheOldyMinecart
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TheOldyMinecart

Want to detect a fake tech support scam? Here's how you can.


I'm going to use this one as a example to where you can try it yourself.

Official Microsoft-Windows-Help-and-Services

FAIR WARNING: DO NOT CALL ANY TOLL FREE NUMBERS LISTED!


So, to detect that a website is a scam (like this one is), all you need to do is close it and don't reopen it.

If, for some reason, you click on the inside part, your Chrome window will go full screen. At this point, you must force-stop Chrome using the Task Manager. Unfortunately, all your other tabs will go too.


HOWEVER, there is ANOTHER way to detect a website is a scam. If, at any point, you run into a tech support scam, you can also do this: Within Chrome, do Ctrl + U and you will be shown the site's source code. Then, do Ctrl + F to bring up Chrome's "Find" menu. I'd recommend you'd look for "chrome", ".jpg", ".png", ".wav", "JavaScript", ".mp3", among other various things that scammers use to fake a tech support warning.


For me, while I was browsing through the source code of the website listed above, I found files labeled "bg-1.jpg", "bg-2.jpg", bg-3.jpg", "err.mp3", and "2.png".


bg-1, bg-2, and bg-3.jpg were all used to spoof the Chrome's top bar. Unfortunately for them, it is still the older, non-material design bar. 2.png was just a random "Windows Activation" dialogue box with terrible use of capitalization.


"err.mp3", was actually the looping sound that played at the warning screen. It only played once as an mp3 file, but on the website, it looped continuously and was very annoying.


I also found out they use the Zira TTS assistant as their voice on the website using a website called NaturalReaders, a website that can read text aloud with over hundreds of options. I'd recommend you'd check it out here: text to speech online


I also found out they actually spoof legitimate Chrome message boxes. I found "chrome-alert" whilst browsing the source. It had a mild use of bad capitalization, but however, it was hidden in the background, and in the foreground, a prompt to sign in was requested by Chrome.


Behind that, was another message. Terrible grammar and misuse of capitalization.


Also, another way to detect a fake tech support scam is to relate back to other tech support scams.

Some common ones are (but not limited to):

"*** YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN BLOCKED ***",

"ZEUS VIRUS DETECTED - YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN BLOCKED",

"Internet Security Alert!",

"Error #268D3",
BSOD tech support scams,

tech support scams spoofing well-known websites,

websites with auto-redirects to tech support scams,

fake advertisements on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.,

images with redirects to tech support scams,

and many more.


Another way to is to watch other YouTube videos to better understand what types of tech support scams to avoid.


Hope this helps with you avoiding tech support scams! Have a good day!

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