www.365pcsupport.com review: Rip Off / Scam 16

This is absolutely a scam, however I was nearly tricked into this in a different manner than the other reports.
I downloaded WinRAR, which is supposed to be a free software but I suspect that there was some kind of Trojan horse involved that got into my laptop (I have since uninstalled it and am currently vigorously running antivirus software).
I was minding my own business when a new tab opened in Chrome claiming to be from my service provider. For context, I am from Canada. The new tab said something along the lines of "Viruses have been detected on this computer. Please contact this number now to get tech support." I was a little suspicious, because I literally purchased this laptop yesterday, so I just ignored it. A couple minutes later, ANOTHER window opened, this time just a blue screen with similar text on it.
I called the number out of panic (I didn't want anything to happen to my new baby laptop). I was connected to a lovely woman named Alina who told me to install a program that would allow her to take control of my computer and diagnose my problem. Because I thought it was my service provider, I let her do this. Soon after, she opened a window and informed me that my computer didn't have certain software that would help protect it. When I asked if it was antivirus, she gave me a vague and incomprehensible answer. She then opened Notepad and said "Ok, we can offer you software for $179 for 1 year, $279 for 3 years, and $379 for 5 years." I told her I was going to go ask my dad about it (I just finished high school and still live with my parents and thus don't have a substantial income to pay that kind of money with) and she said "Are you not capable of making decisions about this computer?" I was sort of put-off by that, so I just said goodbye and hung up. By the time I ran out to the garage to freak out about it to my dad, I had realized it was a scam.
https://gyazo.com/7c75d8a26f8e5e451a92b7e250aaa093 here's a screenshot of the websites the scam took me to
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/tech-support-scams/ here's a confirmation by malwarebytes that this is a scam

I had a popup that had Microsoft in the top left and it said to click on to this that my comp. was in danger of crashing. so I did they talked me in to letting them in my pc & showed me some nasty pictures I have never looked at anything like that on my pc. They said they could clean & remove all that stuff for 299.99 stupid me I let them get me. Then BOOM 2 weeks later they called and said I needed a900.00 package to keep hackers out. That's when I looked up on line they were scammers. Went to my bank they refunded my money but then notified me I had to pay the bill do to some electronic signature. This all happened dec. 9th the first contact now is feb 9th and Im on my pc and the nasty pics showed up when I was trying to install an update on my software. So I came here to make a complaint I hope someone can stop these people... Moonerr444@ Yahooooooo

My name is Sônia, I live in Brazil, Saõ Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo state. As I was notified that my PC has malware and viruses, I downloaded the 365 techhelp and installed it ( cleanPC registry cleaner ) . My order is 189955- Product key 235MG-WP1PS-4SM3L-P1NCN-BH66M. When the program appears and starts its work, it asks me to buy the complete version. When this appeared by the first time I agreeded and the value done was 29, 95 - america dolar and IOF 0 1, 91 american dolar. These values are already in my credit card for November - Master card - nº [protected], 954 valid till 11/2016, but I can´t repair anything even putting the key mentioned above. Please, I´d like to have a solution, otherwise I ask you to disregard this purchase and the payment that I have already ordered,

I wait your answer as soon as possible
Thanks
Sônia Maria ( e-mail - soniamaria.nmendes@gmail.com )

I too just got a call from Stanford Software...Andrew Johnson was his name. Stated he was calling from Britian; was associated with Microsoft and that my computer was sending ou virus's which were being traced back to my IP number. I wanted to write down the procedure to scan, rather than actually follow his instructions. That seemed to be a problem, and so I hung up.

Oh sorry I forgot to include this extra information, so hopefully it's OK that I just write it as another separate comment (I see no editing feature)

I'm guessing they don't have any actual affiliation with Microsoft at all, and that their ID number is just made up. My reasoning is due to the fact that I could not seem to find any information regarding Microsoft partner ID numbers, at least in the way their website worded it.

Even if they do have some sort of legit connection to microsoft though, it doesn't mean they are a legit company or should be trusted. Anyone could probably get these ID number things if they actually exist, and wouldn't give any credibility to the company.

I just got a phone call from one of these dudes today, and had a field day with him.

He was telling me that my computer was sending viruses and junk files (not e-mails) to random computers and websites over the internet. I asked him which sites and he said random sites including Google and Cisco (LOL).

He also said (or maybe insinuated) that my computer was infected with a trojan named CS 20. When I asked what this trojan does, he said it is a DEADLY VIRUS. I hence asked if this virus will kill me, and he said it will kill my computer. I hence asked HOW it will kill my computer, and he said it will destroy the "application system" on my motherboard... an absurd concept because no such thing as an "application system" exists for a motherbard. Not only that, but it's virtually impossible for software to damage motherboards at all.

Once I said that there's no such thing as a application system, he said "why are you wasting my time?" and hung up.

Before that, I also asked where they are located, and he said an office in Toronto, Canada (probably the place they say to all canadians even though I am in Winnipeg) as well as that there are other offices in Australia and other international locations.

I should have downloaded their program and ran it in a sandboxie (isolated environment so it doesn't infect anything), but didn't think of it at the time, and am pretty lazy and not curious about it.

Please do not under any circumstances run (or even download) any of their programs unless you do so out of curiosity in a safe environment (such as with a free program called sandboxie).

please bear with me, i am writing this from a friends computer.

I am in Australia and these people [365 pc support] called me up (how they got my number and name i do not know) and asked me to goto a website to try and download a virus/malware that looks like legit software.

'Why?' i asked, he explained he was a microsoft partner and that my computer was spamming emails.
'What can i do about this?' i asked, he replied that i should download their software and install it which would apparently fix all the problems.
OH NO i thought, i asked what computer of mine is spamming these emails, 'all the computers in your residence are infected' he replied.
He then gave me a URL to download this from, which i wrote down on a piece of paper.

After 10 or so minutes i then decided to let this caller know that i, in fact, do not possess a computer in the house and that i was recording the conversation; he immediately ended the phone call.
I will be forwarding the recording and URLs involved to the Australian Federal Police and I encourage everyone else to do the same.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/reportascam

They called me up saying that Microsoft has been receiving multiple malicious e-mails from my IP address. They wanted to remotely gain access to my computer through teamviewer to diagnose the problem. I guess I was stupid to let them do this, but he said he was calling on behalf of microsoft. he said Microsoft doesn't call people they get us to do it for them. As he was working remotly all the guy said was "oh my god your computer is so slow, what's going on here?". He literally said it about 20 times. I've never had issues with my computer, I don't find it slow at all. I did let my Norton subsricption lapse though. He made a folder on the desktop. He said now I want you to open the folden and if the screen goes blue then you don't have a virus, If the screen goes black then you have a virus. I opened it and the screen went black. He said you have a system wide virus and he wanted me to pay for their services to clean up my pc. He had me go to their website 365solutions.com which did look professional, but by this time, I was completly suspicious of his motives . I told him I wasn't going to pay and hung up. I tried calling their number back to see if it was a legitimate company and all it said was " All circuts are now busy". About 1/2 hour later the guy called back and said his suprevisor was going to talk to me. His supervisor told me that my computer was continously sending viruses to the microsodft website and that the website will potentially crash and Microsoft may seek legal action against me. I just hung up on him. i did update my Norton and I was worried about that folder that he had made on my desktop. I scaned it and it was clear.

Why would anyone give advice or software for free. Do you think we are all idiots? Basicly you are looking for old/middle aged people who do not know alot about computers. Potentially mothers and family who will trust anyone. You are sick individuals and need to be eradicated.

I agree with the comment that this is a scam, i have had several customers come into and ring the computer shop i work in (australia) saying that someone from 365 pc support has been refered by microsoft and would need the customer to turn on their computer for remote assistance. if the reps from this company say they are not doing anything wrong they are because all these phone calls have been unsolicited and unwanted, so why the phone calls? All dealings have been logged and refered to the proper authorities.

I also was called by them and they claimed that they were commissioned by Microsoft to help people with malware etc installed and that my computer was in fact compromised and sending a heap of junk mail. They said they needed to guide me through installing software. I asked for business information such as where they are calling from (he said Sydney despite having an Adelaide prefix of 08 on their number and not surprisingly it sounded like an indian call centre - which he also had a strong indian accent - but claimed to be german) and when I asked for their business registration number he claimed that "he could not give out sensitive information such as that" (which is odd given this is public information that any company should be happy to provide).

Clearly a scam

I had a phone call from these people last claiming all of the above. I argued with them as to why they would phone me as surely if I thought I had a problem, I would phone someone! They didn't seem to understand. When he told me they work closely with ISP's, I said if I asked my ISP if they had heard of you would they say yes and he said yes. So after the phone call I phoned my ISP and they said they had many calls from customers about this company. They said they are a new company to the market who are trying to get their business out there. I said well how did they get my phone number and name and they said they get it from the telephone directory (which I'm not on). I also don't give my number out to anyone so they must be sold on somehow. Also if this 'so called' company does exist... How do I know that who phoned me is who they are they are! I think these people should think a lot harder before phoning people as they just going to get the same response. There are so many scams going around these days that it's hard to tell what is real and what's not! All I can say is be careful!

I live in Qld, Australia & was just this morning given the same information. I was told they are a partner to Microsoft & both Microsoft R&D & my isp had given them information that I have major threats on my pc. He told me that there would be no charge for their support as long as I had a registered version of Windows. He gave me a call back number with an incorrect area code to the one it should have been, had he actually been in the city he said he was calling from. I asked for a Microsoft number & person to whom I should speak to verify his claims, but he refused to do so. Their website wouldn't come up at the time, but eventually Google sent me to this site! I gave him no information about what was on my pc, nor could he give me any specific details other than my name & phone number that was available from the phone book. Needless to say, I have sent out a warning to all my contacts.

One of my co-workers came to me asking about this company as her friend's grandmother was called by this company about a computer that was purchased 6 months ago. Reportedly, she was told that Microsoft had told them of the failure and that the system was in danger of crashing.

This raised a red flag in my mind because, as a Microsoft Partner myself, Microsoft does not do this with end users. The error reports do not collect this kind of information, namely personally identifiable information such as phone numbers, required to make such contact. It may be advisable for 365 PC support to pull some recordings of these calls. Possibly someone is going a little heavy on sales tactics internally.

After looking up the website, which looks very nice by the way, I noticed that 365 PC Support claims, or gives the impression of, partnership with Microsoft and Cisco. Neither lists them in their partner directories that I can find myself. As a Cisco partner, the temptation is high to email my Cisco representative for verification. Seeing how Cisco is not in the personal PC market, I'm not sure why this would be mentioned if for no other reason than for the name recognition. None of the listed services mention anything relevant to a Cisco product or service.

Also, a lot of the links on the page look like keywords. The links only link back to the page they are listed on. Seems like shoddy web design or link farming to gain a higher position on search engines.

All told, it looks suspicious at best.

Mr. Cruz we are based of Las Vegas, NV with the support center in India, Thats how we have been able to give Support at such affordable price. Please let us whom have you spoken with and if any there is any mis-representation done we will take strict action. Once again I confirm you we don't sell any Software.

We never claim that we have been reffered by Microsoft, nor we sell any software we are 24/7 support company infact we give out software for free with our annual support pack. We even don't threat you but let you know what threats your PC is facing and it is completely up you if you want our services or not.''

Thanks
SUpport @ 365 pc support