Q: Is support.me a scam or real virus support for apple products?
Whilst doing some google searching my browser suddenly started talking to me and warning me I had contracted a virus. I thought this strange as I hadn't opened any attachments or visited anything dodgy. The pop up window gave me a number to call for assistance in fixing my computer. I called but was very unconvinced by the 'support' person on the other end. She instructed me to force quite, upon which I say a safari programme not responding. I shut everything down and restarted my computer as per her instructions. She then told me to go to support.me and download something to fix my computer. At this point i got very suspicious and did a phishing google search on support me. A few warning posts on forums came up. So I told the woman I didn't trust her or the situation enough to continue so put the phone down rather than go to support.me. I feel vindicated but am still worried by whatever caused the pop up window in the first place. should i be? do i need real apple support to fix this? or did i catch the scam in time and I'm safe to carry on?
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), iOS 8.3
Posted on Jun 11, 2015 7:15 AM
Support.me is part of LogMeIn Rescue which is legitimate. However, LogMeIn is software to allow remote access to your computer, and the people who were trying to utilize support.me were scammers and you should not allow them access.
Jesstar24 wrote:
or did i catch the scam in time and I'm safe to carry on?
Yes. Since you didn't allow them remote access, and it doesn't sound like you gave them any information like credit card numbers, phone numbers, Apple ID, etc. you are fine.
I feel vindicated but am still worried by whatever caused the pop up window in the first place. should i be?
See A Browser Pop-up has Taken Over Safari to learn more about this scam.
(Note that I am affiliated with that site, and some pages contain ads).
Posted on Jun 11, 2015 7:25 AM