How to complain to Apple about some bad information I was given by one of their agents

Call Apple Customer Relations (1-800) 275-2273. Wait for a human to come on the line and ask politely and firmly that you want to be transferred over to the Customer Relations department.

That was some extremely bad advice from the first Apple rep you talked to. The scammers removed nothing, other than maybe some random system files. Zeus is Windows only malware, so it was impossible for you to be infected with it to begin with.

Call your credit card company and do four things immediately.

1) Explain what happened and have them reverse the charges.

2) Have that card cancelled and a new one issued. They have the number now and can use it to make fraudulent purchases, or sell the number to other crooks who will.

3) There's no telling what else they may have done. Such as copying personal data, or having you install a keylogger. Because of these possibilities, erasing the drive and reinstalling everything from scratch is a must. Manually backup your personal data, erase the drive, reinstall the OS and your third party software (NOTHING they had you install) and manually restore your personal data. You must do this before number 4.

4). With the drive cleaned of any possible malware that would allow them to watch what you're doing, go online and change the passwords of every site you visit that has that information. Start with your bank.

ecady wrote:

I was recently scammed (although I didn't know it at the time). I was aware that rarely do Apple users get scammed and when a window started flashing on my iMac screen telling me the computer had been compromised and giving a tel# for support, since the computer was frozen, I called the number, listened to their spiel, became cautious and hung up. I called a local Apple store

Was this an actual Apple retail store (see this -> http://www.apple.com/retail/) or a computer store that sells Apple products?

A keylogger, which they may have had you install (and told you it was a firewall), captures every single thing you type on your keyboard and send the data to a server of their choosing. The hope is to catch you typing in both the web address of your bank along with your login ID and password. Then they're clear out your checking and savings accounts as fast as they can. It's also used to capture any web site you log into and type in a credit card number. They capture your name, the card number and the all important three number security code so it can be used for fraudulent purchases.

Very wise of you to cancel cards and secure your bank accounts.

You're welcome. Sounds like the mess the scammers made was easy to clean up. 🙂