If you get a phone call from some stranger who claims they’ve detected problems in your computer, watch out, you might become a victim of the so-called “Amy Scam.”
Milwaukee resident Mark Snyder got a call from a “Microsoft technician,” who was concerned about Marks computer. They directed him to ammyy.com where he was asked to enter 2 passwords. And when he did, BAM, it was too late.
He tells WITI, “he actually had control of my mouse…he was moving it around.” Ammyy.com is a legitimate website which allows anyone to control their computer from a remote location. But, thieves from overseas are using it to, in this case, to demand money for supposedly cleaning up viruses.
“I had to send the check to a frank Snyder, and then I was supposed to tell Western Union that it was just a friend that I was sending it to,” says Mark.
At Ammyy.com, they are fully aware of the fraud, and they have issued a warning: If you receive a phone call claiming to be from ‘Microsoft’ telling you that you have a virus on your computer or some errors which they will help you to fix via Ammyy Admin, it is definitely a scam.
Even after Mark sent that first two hundred and sixty nine dollars, the thief called back demanding a second payment, but this time, Mark refused. “He said if you don’t give me that $269, I’m going to shut your computer down, and I said I’m not giving it to you. Sure enough, he shut my computer down. It just went blank.”
Mark wound up having to take his computer to a professional to clean it up, and get control back.
If any stranger calls you and says they’re from Microsoft, and they want to help you with problems on your computer by going to ammyy.com, you now know what to do.
