iYogi, scam? Relationship with Apple?

Apple Support does not recommend any specific third-party company, and I have difficulty believing that any Apple employee would give you the number of iYogi, at least as a company policy. What support number did you call that you believe put you in touch with Apple Support?

If you allowed iYogi or anyone else to take control of your computer, then yes, it is most certainly at risk. I would strongly suggest backing up your documents and other data, erasing your hard drive, and reinstalling your operaing system and applications, either from the original disks or from a clone or Time Machine backup made before you allowed iYogi into your system. That's the only way you can be sure that some other person does not have a back door into your computer.

Regards.

Wondering as a computer engineering major how is it that my mother paid $400.00 for iyogi and she gets great tech support but they had here download a bunch of other ******** programs. Example, they had her download a windows 7 start menu. As well as, there is no way now for her to defrag her computer anymore. Not allowed to use the defrag due to iyogi. My mother and I was on hold with these indians for over three hours and all they did was delete all temp files, clean up the computer and tell my how my mother paid for the tech service but if she is experencing problems she can not fix them. She has to contact iyogi. This really sounds like a scam. I have contacted several colleges and spoke to professors as well as spoke to Microsoft. Either nobody has heard of them or like Microsoft said; they stongly recommend people find another company to handle their tech support. they charge outrages prices for something that can be done for free. iyogi is a scam and all they do it take advantage of uneducated people.

While having a PC problem installing McAfee software on multiple machines with a 3 license package (only because we must have PC for some uses), I ran into iYogi! I got a message that the product key had already been used. I was told that the reason I could not install a 2nd license of the software was because my registry was infected after they did a remote in on the machine They installed and ran some sort of file scanning software suppposedly. They said this is a problem that "must be fixed immediately." After that, they would be able to help me with my installation problem. They wanted $199.00 to do this. I said no way and hung up. Minutes later I got a chat session with McAfee and found out that the second and third software installations did not require using the product key, but simply logging into my McAfee account and downloading the software on the other 2 machines. iYogi is a scam! Any company doing business with them should be ashamed!

IYOGI is a scam!!!

They remotely connect to your computer, snoop around, place cookies on your machine and then tell you that you need to pay around &170 to fix your problem! The problem was fixed by TP-Link very professional support FREE of charge!

Don't trust them!!!

I just encountered iYogi, and while he had access to my screen, he copied my Ethernet ID. As far as I could see he didn't have any other access, other than that I had to enter my password, which showed on the screen as encrypted -- could he have captured my keyboard strokes? I have cleared the caches in both Safari & Chrome; do I need to do anything else (short of the drastic steps outlined above); are they likely to have some sort of access to my computer now?

It's a guy called Partik Bhatia. He's in India at a hired desk. Be warned this guy will try to mount your machine and once he's done you'll feel like you've been gang raped. I say this because he'll asked for your root password to be input and of course he will get that via a data logging tool, he has your MAC address and can then tunnel into your machine any times it's on. I called this line by accident and quickly realised the guy knew nothing about mac osx. I told him where to go. He's as persistent as an Indian beggar though. Be warned.

Time Warner told me to call apple and gave me the phone #. I was not told it was iyogi. My question was how to reset an Airport Extreme. It had nothing to do with any other apple device I own. We have multiple apple devices in our house. The iyogi rep told i needed to give him my credit card # and the cost was over $500 to cover the tech support for all of our devices. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH OUR DEVICES and the rep kept telling me it would cost alot if I called anyone else. This has to be a scam...crooked...or deceiptful at best!!!

I hung up and was able to figure out the problem on my own.

iyogi is a problem!!!

Yes, Time Warner told me they were giving me the # for Apple but it was for iyogi. The iyogi rep was pushy, deceitful, demanding...I would not have called iyogi directly. And after my experience would NEVER recommend anyone else calling them! They are horrible.

The support is non-exisitant; 4 hours to fleece my mother of 200GBP, not to fix an issue that took me 5 minutes to resolve - and I am not "Apple conversant".

If you are reading this because you think you have been scammed - you have

If you are reading this to find proper Apple support, the UK number could not have been more helpful - More to the point, the recomendation of upgrading my Mum's Apple to the latest OS, means because she has made a purchase from Apple, she will get 90 days support included - now that's a result; Now to get the money refunded from the bank for "Goods not Recieved" under the long distance selling act

I'd be very very wary of this company.

As mentioned, they show up as the top result in a google search for some kind of Apple support. I can't tell you what search terms as I was not the one who googled, then called iYogi. The person bought me their computer in a freaked out state after the fact.

She needed to know a simple question, how to scan a document on her laptop and transfer it to her iPad. She goodled, found and called iYogi and allowed them remote access to her laptop. They pressured her into thinking this was necessary and asked her all kinds of personal information including her name, postal code and credit card. She does not own a credit card and when she told iYogi such they very harshly exclaimed "I don't believe you". They asked her for the credit card details of any other householders! She ended the call and was very shaken by the experience. She bought me the computer to uninstall their software.

In the interim she called legit Apple support and got the help she needed for free.

I am not a computer tech. I uninstalled the software, ran a malware checker and checked msconfig for unfamiliar startup applications. All seemed ok until we shut the computer down and it was "configuring 113 updates" yet there had been no little bubble saying updates were being installed whilst we had the computer running. We both thought it was a little odd.

She used her computer the next day to type a document and part way through decided to leave it for another day. This morning she went to resume her document and upon switching on her laptop it told her "Windows is configuring 103 updates". The computer loaded and restarted itself. When it finally restarted it was blank. All her documents, programs, settings.. gone. Her Windows 7 laptop desktop was resembling that of Windows 95.

I would NOT recommend anyone ever use iYogi.

One can assume they have wiped her laptop. There are no back up or restore points on the system in its current state. You could almost guarantee if she called iYogi back they'd magically "fix" her computer should she somehow have found a credit card to give them.

I have advised her to take the computer to a legitimate technician here in Australia and to call her internet provider to ensure the connection is secure. I have also suggested she call Consumer Protection. Although no money changed hands she was mislead.

My contact with Yogi has been extremely annoying. For the last 10 days they've runf at 5.30 am, not spoken when we've answered the phone then rung back at 6am. When they've rung back at 6am and we've told them that we are on the do not call list ( an Australian service) and please do not call again. This morning I asked to speak to the supervisor and gave him a serve. I was very angry. Being woken every morning by a company that seems to be just plain scamming is very, very annoying. I've tried to have their calls blocked but they ring from a number that is registered as private and therefore cannot be blocked. Has anyone managed to stop this sales terrorism?

My Iphone 5 was charging intermittently when plugged into the wall charger. I called what I thought it was Apple technical support. They asked if I ever used my PC to charge my phone. My reply was "yes". So they asked me to connect my phone to my computer. They remoted into my computer and stated that I needed to clean my temporary files. For $119 he would transfer me to the next technical level. I asked him how temporary files on my computer prevented my phone from charging when I plugged it into the wall. He had no answer but proceeded to try to get me to buy. I did not. I went to the Apple store, they cleaned my phone connector for free. It works great.

OK I am gonna weigh in on this ages old thread. What happens is this - non computer literate folks will google "apple tech support" and right above the actual search results they will get a couple of advertisements - and that is exactly what they are. You will get Yogi and probably MyTechSupport. Clueless folks will think the ad is an actual search engine result coz they do not see the "this is an ad" bit - they just see it at the top of the list. So they call, believing they are calling Apple. These folks are NOT going to say that they are Apple, but they will just let you believe that they are, and sign you up for their $99.00 service - coz hey i found it on the interwebs so it must be true.

Is this illegal? I am not a lawyer, I do not play one one TV. I did not sleep in a Holiday Inn last night. What I can tell you is this: The REAL Apple support will support you by phone for 90 days from original date of purchase of device for free - beyond that the most they will charge is currently $19..00 - and some stuff they will support for free = apple ID issues (passwords, security questions etc) - they do not bill you for that, whereas these jokers will.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

STAY AWAY FROM iYOGi.

I am reinstalling my parents computer after a phone call to iYogi support this morning. My parents are older and not tech savvy, and they came across this phone number when doing a Google search for Apple support - (855)278-7301. The iYOGi support rep took control of my parents computer remotely and installed several backdoor programs - including a keylogger - to log and capture sensitive information. I have instructed my parents to reset all of their passwords and am installing their machine from scratch as we speak.

Keyloggers are VERY dangerous - they document every keystroke you make and record them to a hidden file. If installed correctly, they run in the background and you can't even see the Windows process or Keylogger configuration without typing a very specific keystroke combination. Your usernames/passwords for all websites, such as your bank, etc, are logged as well. Unfortunately these types of identity theft issues are here to stay, so be smart. Never find a support phone number through Google, always go directly to the website (www.apple.com) and then browse for a support phone number or Contact Us link. iYOGI is very deceptive as their support website says apple.iyogi.com, which my parents didn't catch.

Be smart and be safe everyone.

I recently ended up calling Iyogi accidentally. When i searched for apple care phone number on my cellphone it comes out as the first paid ad. I did not realize it at that point. I spoke to the guy for about half hour, gave him name email id phone number etc, which apple care should already have it based on your apple ID. My Macbook Pro is relatively new, so the 90 day warranty should cover it. He kept saying his database shows that the warranty has expired and i need to pay $180 to get it fixed. I asked him to verify the serial number on my mac and he dodged it by saying the laptop was bought in the mid of june this year, basically giving me all the information i gave him earlier and which address it was shipped to. I asked him to transfer me to his supervisor who could fix the issue because apple should be providing 90 day free support, he said everyone will have access to the same database so only way to move forward was for me to pay $180. I wanted it fixed remotely and didnot want to go to apple store to fix it. Finally, after much arguing he said since his database is showing it is expired, i might go to the nearest apple store where they might even fix it for free. Normally incase apple care is not able to support something remotely they will set up an appointment with the local store which this guy did not offer to do. Overall there were too many red flag which i did not notice until i got off the phone.

Calling the real applecare number they fixed it for free and i was only on the call for 10 mins!