ATLANTA (AP) - As people continue to work and attend school from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, they should be vigilant for scammers posing as tech support, Georgia's attorney general says.
The scammers may call posing as a representative for a well-known tech company, or people might get a pop-up window on their computer saying a virus has been detected and providing a number to call, according to a news release from Attorney General Chris Carr's office.
Once scammers have an unsuspecting person on the phone, the scammer asks for remote access to the computer, the release says. Once they have access, they can get user names, passwords and other personal information and use it to access and steal money from existing accounts or open new credit accounts. Scammers may also ask for payment to remove an alleged virus.
The attorney general's office provides the following tips to stay safe from scammers:
- Don't click on pop-up messages that claim to be from tech support or call a number in a pop-up message;
- Shut down your computer and restart if you get a pop-up message and your computer freezes;
- If someone calls and says they're from tech support, hang up;
- Don't grant remote control of your computer to someone who calls out of the blue or whose number appeared in a pop-up message.