Tech support scammers are nothing new, but a Canadian man named Jakob Dulisse had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on your sense of humor) to stumble upon a particularly aggressive caller. It all started as you might expect; an unexpected call came in to Dulisse’s phone, courteously informing him his computer was threatened.
The individual said that Dulisse had a “significant problem” on his computer. To “fix” the problem, the caller instructed him to visit a series of websites boasting utilities that are, in fact, malware. Then, the caller began to ask Dulisse for his bank account information.
Dulisse was not fooled. He knew the game all along. When he let the caller know that he was onto his scam, however, the situation turned ugly. The individual began to threaten Dulisse, stating that he knew where he lived and could have him killed. The conversation was recorded by Dulisse, who then sent the recording to local CBC News.
“If you come to India, you know what we do to Anglo people?” the caller asked Dulisse. “We cut them up in little pieces and throw them in the river.”
Not exactly five-star service, right?
Microsoft has long made clear it will never directly phone its customers for tech support issues, and it won’t request financial information on a technical support call. It has used its blog as a platform to warn customers of potential scams.
“Tech support scams are not a new phenomenon,” wrote Courtney Gregoire, senior attorney for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit. “Scammers have been peddling useless security software for years, tricking people into spending millions of dollars on non-existent computer problems.”
Microsoft has found that nearly 2.8 million Canadians have received a tech scam call over the past year. Approximately 200,000 of these victims have lost money as a result. Dulisse, though, is the only one threatened with death and dismemberment – as far as we know.
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