My yahoo email spammed all my contacts with a scam email. Yahoo put me on to a company called Techy-9. They charged me £150 to supposedly clean up my computer. They used remote control and downloaded Mackeeper

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My yahoo email spammed all my contacts with a scam email. Yahoo put me on to a company called Techy-9. They charged me £150 to supposedly clean up my computer. They used remote control and downloaded Mackeeper

After sending out a spam email to everyone of my email contacts I contacted Yahoo on the phone and they put me in touch with someone from Techy-9. He talked me through downloading a program that gave him remote control (Team control?) and downloaded Mackeeper to show that I had a serious problem....2000 files that had a virus and everything in the red! They then charged me £150 which I paid by Paypal to clean up my computer. I left the computer on so that they could do this. When I got back i restarted my computer, to find that all my folders and contacts on Yahoo mail had been deleted and when I went onto Mackeeper everything was still showing red.

I realise that by downloading any clean up apps your opening up a can of worms! Apps with Trojans. I changed my Yahoo mail password

The company have now phoned back and apparently it was one of their technicians that has 'pocketed' my £150 and that they will be refunding it.

I have managed ( I hope) to remove the apps from my application folder and put them in trash and emptying trash.

Be careful when you use an 0800 number to Yahoo mail as somehow it was automatically transferred to Techy-9. At the moment I am a little wary about this company but will be much happier when I get back my £150 and will acknowledge that it was a rogue technician.

Just don't download anything that says it will clean your Mac.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011)

Posted on Oct 12, 2015 4:42 AM

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Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Oct 12, 2015 7:11 AM in response to AlpacaJackie

Just how did you contact Yahoo?

Are yo sure you really contacted them?

I would format your HD and reinstall OSX and restore from a backup made before the problem. You never know if they installed any malware when they had control of your Mac.

All change the password for all accounts used on the Mac.

If you do banking on your computer I would inform the banking companies of possible identity theft.

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Answer 2

Oct 12, 2015 4:30 PM in response to AlpacaJackie

Redundant post sorry.

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

141,150 points

Oct 14, 2015 2:58 AM in response to AlpacaJackie

AlpacaJackie wrote:

... I contacted Yahoo on the phone

Most likely, you Googled "Yahoo Support" and dialed the number of a scam outfit. Scammers pay to boost their ranking in search results so their websites and phone numbers appear above those of legitimate companies. Like any other product or service, legitimate support contact information must be determined on your own, by navigating directly to a company's website or finding other means of establishing direct contact with them. Never rely upon an Internet search engine to do that for you.

To learn more about that threat read Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popups and web pages.

Just don't download anything that says it will clean your Mac.

Good idea.

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Answer 4

Oct 12, 2015 7:46 PM in response to AlpacaJackie

Direct from Yahoo!:

Support from Yahoo is always free of charge

We work hard to provide help to everyone that needs it. Depending on your issue, our assistance can come via email, phone, social media, or our Yahoo help communities.

No matter how we work with you on your inquiry, our support is always free of charge.

If you paid for help with your Yahoo account, you were likely working with an impostor. Contact your financial institution to report the charge as soon as possible and take these steps to review your Yahoo account's security.

Need to Contact Yahoo Customer Service? Click "Contact Us" on our help pages to get started.

Things Yahoo Customer Care will never do

Charge you to assist you in any way (reset your password, provide technical support, or address abuse or account security concerns).
Request to remotely connect to your computer for any support related request.
Support or endorse third-party offerings that provide customer support for a fee.

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Answer 5

AlpacaJackie Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2015 9:26 AM in response to John Galt

That's exactly what happened. In panic so went to first 0800 number that I thought was Yahoo and the company Techy-9 let me think it was. They then downloaded Team Viewer to get control of my computer and downloaded MacKeeper to show that it was not only my mail but also the whole computer.

Asked for bank details etc to clean everything up but I didn't give them this and said I would pay by paypal. They said they didn't use PayPal but would find a way around this. Phoned back twenty minutes later saying could then do a Paypal transaction by giving me an email address and bank account details. I sent off £150 by Paypal and left my computer in their control!!! to clean it up. Came back, turned on computer, ran MacKeeper thinking I would get a clean bill of health......Still everything red (serious) at this point I realised I'd been scammed and googled MacKeeper to find that it is malware.

I was phoned the following day by the company and was told that this was done by a rogue agent and to email their billing company with what had happened and I would get a refund. Still now very sceptical so have been onto PayPal and have set up dispute dealings.

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