Heliconwebtech

Erika –

Victim Location 57042

Total money lost $400

Type of a scam Tech Support

A company claiming to be legitimate ultimately hacked my mom’s computer. I was on the phone with her and had her tell me what happened step by step. I have captured it as she told it to me.

Beginning of Mom’s account:

I turned on the computer and when I opened Chrome, a screen appeared saying the website I wanted to access was blocked (Amazon). The screen said that my computer had been blocked because someone was trying to hack it and get my information. The screen said to call 1-833-236-1333 for technical support. I called the number, and they asked how I got the phone number, so I read what I saw on the screen. At some point he told me he worked with Microsoft and he would help solve the problem. Neil told me to hit crtl+r, and a box appeared. In the box I was supposed to type fastsupport.com, and that sent me to the heliconwebtech website. Then Neil had me link computers. I’m a little fuzzy on how we did this, but I know Neil gave me a code to enter but I didn’t write it down. I told him at this time that I was leery about giving them access to my computer. He responded with, "We’re just going to help you." Once on my computer, Neil showed that they had a bunch of my information (including my PayPal account), a number of companies that were trying to access my information, etc. He then showed me how to encrypt my information by clicking a box. He clicked the box to encrypt but then clicked it off again. Then Neil said their service would make sure my data was encrypted. He said he was trying to block some of the foreign people but was not having a lot of luck. But, the program he wanted to sell me would block all of those people. He then asked about my computer protection and I admitted that I had let it lapse. Neil showed me three protection packages but without prices. Once I told him I could not afford any of those, Neil turned me over to Jason, his supervisor, to try and negotiate prices I could afford. I did get his employee ID before being transferred: ne1853dg

Jason kept trying to scare me, telling me how many people are trying to get into my computer and so forth. I told him to stop trying to scare me and get to the point. He then dropped the prices for the protection packages. After going back and forth, he dropped the best package down to $400. I agreed to that. Jason then had me write an email ([email protected]) saying I was paying $400 and that I was satisfied with the service. I told him I didn’t want to send the email because I wasn’t sure if the program would do what I wanted it to do. He assured me this was just a formality. I had to access my PayPal account (with them still connected to my computer) and I agreed to pay $400. The transaction went through immediately. Jason then said to leave my computer on and he would personally work on my computer to fix things. After I hung up, I called my daughter, and she was suspicious. She told me to turn off my computer immediately and unplug it, which I did. The company then proceeded to call me 4 times in a matter of 30 minutes but never left a message. My daughter did some internet searches and could not find a link between this company and Microsoft. Instead, it looked like the company was created in April, which is the the same timeframe in which the data they showed me was being stolen. My daughter helped me reset my PayPal account and we sent in a charge dispute. I then tried to call Jason back to confront him regarding his connection to Microsoft.

I first called 8332361333 but got someone other than Jason. They were going to transfer me to Jason but all I got was an empty line. Then I tried calling the personal number Jason provided (3152151162) but found out it was not connected. I called the first number again and got Jason on the line. I told him that we couldn’t find a connection to Microsoft, which he replied that Microsoft will often contract out situations like this. I also told him that I suspected this to be fraudulent and I wanted a refund. He said he was going to check into this. I did warn that I was going to report them to the FBI. Again, I requested a refund but at the time of this submission, it had not happened. I doubt it will.

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