Home Printed Scams

(I occasionally do office work for my mother’s home business. She is having difficulty with her network printer; for some reason, the connection keeps dropping, so we visit the support website listed on the printer and begin talking to an online support consultant.)

Me: “Hi. My mum recently purchased a [type] network printer from your company; it seems to be having difficulty staying connected to the WiFi. Can you help?

Consultant: “Yes. I will send you a remote access request now. Please go to this website.” *provides link*

Me: *after checking the link* “Okay.”

(Remote access comes up, and I accept it. Mum and I sit there watching as he clicks on My Documents, clicks around for a little while, right clicks on the desktop, and does nothing, never even going near the Devices and Printers area. By now, I’m getting wary.)

Me: “Is everything okay?”

Consultant: “Yes.”

(After a long pause, they then open Internet Explorer, and of all things, they type the URL for Facebook!)

Me: “What are you doing?”

(Luckily, my mum rarely uses it and always logs herself out!)

Consultant: “Please log in to Facebook.”

Me: “Why?”

Consultant: “Please log in to Facebook.”

Me: “Why do you even need it?!”

(The consultant then closed Facebook and went to a website I did not recognise, and they began downloading something onto her computer. At that moment, with Mum panicking behind me, I hard-switched off the computer, and Mum switched off the router. God only knows what they were trying to do! We reported the incident to the company. They agreed that was their support website but denied everything that had happened. Needless to say, when they next sent a bill for their hire services, we refused to pay and returned the printer.)