Dell Tech Phone Scam

By an edhat reader

I almost fell prey to a scam today. I had a call from Dell Customer service today, I was not immediately suspicious. The call appeared to be from the Dell 800 # listed on their website, they had my service tag #, my express service info and the date that I sent my laptop in for repair covered under my warranty. They said they had been trying to send me security updates but messages had been rejected.

They had me make an entry to look at some kind of log and it said it had not been updated since July and there was over 6000 security breach attempts. They said my computer needed a tune up, they would remove the malware etc. All of this took an hour or so. Then they said the McAfee antivirus software is not sufficient etc. They wanted me to purchase AVG software. The cost was anywhere from $100.00-300.00, now I was getting suspicious.

I Googled about scams and was concerned and I have a service contract with Cox and called them. They said shut the computer down, they went in and checked the downloads etc, ran their antivirus software etc, said there was no real damage and the scam was probably just to get my credit card. In the meantime these guys called back my cell and landline approx. 10 times each. These scammers are so sophisticated these days. Beware!