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dell

Dell famously increased its outsourcing program when it was riding high at the top of the PC market. The company's fortunes have changed over the years, as it's now a privately held firm once again, but information technology notwithstanding outsources nearly tech support to call centers in India. Now, customers are reporting suspicious phone calls that announced to be from Dell employees in Republic of india, only these callers attempt to extort coin to fix computer issues. It'due south starting to look similar someone has gained admission to Dell's support data, or maybe this is an inside chore.

Cold telephone call computer support scams are nothing new, but the scammers in this case know things that only Dell should know. Luckily, one potential victim of this scam knew what was what was happening and made notes on how the scammers attempted to proceeds control of his system.

It starts with an unexpected phone call. In the cold call variety of this scam, the attackers ofttimes merits to be from Microsoft. With most PCs running Windows, it'south a safe bet they'll at least get a foot in the door. The Dell scammers, however, have access to the customer's name, address, phone number, and chiefly, the Dell service tag. The service tag is a code that customers employ to get faster support when calling Dell. It brings upwardly organization info and back up history — apparently, Dell's support centers permit anyone to access whatsoever service tag to wait up data.

Malware-Post

Later on convincing the customer they're legit with the clever utilise of personal information, they feign business. The scammers claim Dell has detected malware on the PC or that they're just following up on a previous technical effect. Either style, the goal is to convince the client to permit the "support rep" on the phone remote access to the computer. According to ane detailed rundown of the process, they ask the client to visit a website to download remote access software. And so, it's a simple matter of pulling up something that looks broken or ominous to convince the client something is wrong. Next, information technology's time for the hard sell. They demand money in society to fix the problems they've invented.

There are a few threads in the Dell forums detailing these calls (besides every bit some other sites), which announced to be more in-depth than the usual tech support scams. They all include the perpetrators using personal information from Dell to sound legitimate. Dell has notwithstanding to offer an explanation for how and so much personal data is available to the scammers. Hacks usually result in large volumes of data spilling out across the web, only this appears to be much more focused, leading many to advise that Dell workers themselves are behind the calls.

We've reached out to Dell and accept been told the company is actively investigating the reports. Company reps request anyone who is a victim of this scam to written report it to Dell. For the time being, exist wary of any unexpected telephone calls from "Dell."