Brother setup support scam

I got a new printer and googled “Brother printer setup,” which brought up a very official looking “Brother Setup Support” webpage. I accessed the chat window, and the woman connected me by phone with a tech in India, who said he needed access to my computer to figure the problem out. After a while he said that my network was corrupted , I had no firewall, and I needed to have someone else clean that up and install a proper firewall. He showed me a page (that I realized later wasn’t really from my computer) that said my firewall was not active, then he tried hard to convince me that someone (other than him) had access to my entire computer. I declined, telling him that I didn’t feel comfortable with it and that I’d take it to the local Apple people to trouble shoot. He said it wasn’t a computer problem, it was a network problem. I realized later that I’m not even on a “network,” so that doesn’t make sense. I asked him if I’d have to pay this next person and when he said yes, I said no thanks and that I’d find someone local. After I hung up and thought about it, I knew something was wrong and called the real Brother company, who said this is a scam that “they’re working on.” I then googled it and found that they’ve know about it since at least 2018 — and haven’t fixed it yet!

I don’t think there’s an issue with my internet, and can’t find any evidence of malware or viruses on the laptop, but did a full backup and restarted it to make sure. This has been intensely stressful, and I’m still not sure if he might have installed something on my computer... Is there an easy way for me to check this? I’m on a MacBook Air, running OS 13.4.1

MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Posted on Jul 21, 2023 2:44 PM

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Question marked as Best answer

Unfortunately this issue occurs with any product and vendor and is not specific to Brother. It is indeed sad that the scammers are so prevalent as they ruin so many nice things these days. Those scammers are making things difficult both for consumers and even businesses. I'm continually saddened & frustrated with them as well.


The printer should have come with some instructions including a URL for the official Brother website.


Here is the official URL for the Brother website (for the US at least, you may be able to access other regions from this link):

https://www.brother-usa.com/home


FYI, if you purchase an Air Print compatible printer, then you should not need to install any third party software to use it. See this Apple article regarding Air Print compatible printers:

Print wirelessly from your Mac to your printer - Apple Support


Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac - Apple Support


Posted on Jul 22, 2023 7:21 PM

31 replies

Brother setup support scam

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