Scammers call home of BBB of Utah's boss


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SALT LAKE CITY — They call, identify themselves as contractors for Microsoft and claim you have a virus on your computer that they can fix — if you give them remote access.

Those behind a “tech support” scam that has recently surfaced in more than a dozen states called the wrong home Wednesday night — that of the president of the Better Business Bureau of Utah.

Jane Driggs said she answered an 800-number that read “AVS Services” on caller ID. A heavily-accented man, who identified himself as Ron, told her that her computer was infected with malware, spyware and “lots of errors” and that “crash was imminent.”

He then passed her to his supposed supervisor named Peter, Driggs said, who told her the same thing, as did that man’s alleged boss. He said his name was Mark Rogers.

Driggs, the CEO of Utah's BBB, said the third man instructed her how to bring up a screen on her computer that showed a number of warnings and errors.

“They were yellow and red,” Driggs remembered and chuckled. “We all know, yellow and red are bad.”

Rogers then told her they could fix the problem for $149 if she gave them her credit card number and allowed them to gain access to her computer by downloading a program.

Driggs — who was initially taken by surprise by the call, but generally enjoys a conversation with any scammer — began searching online during the conversation and discovered that what she was seeing on her screen was naturally occurring on all computers.

“I said to Mark, ‘This is a scam. I know it’s a scam,' ” she said. “' You should be ashamed of yourself!' ”

The man quickly hung up, Driggs said.

“They always hang up,” she laughed. “They can’t risk it.”

Driggs may have been quick to realize she was the target of the scam, but she knows a lot of people could be vulnerable if they are not as computer savvy.

“Who knows what my mom would have thought,” Driggs said.

Driggs said scammers, after gaining access to personal computers, can find accounts used in online banking, Facebook and other social media logins and even family pictures, which can immediately be turned around and sold for identity theft purposes.

The men, Driggs believed, were operating out of a place where lots of people were on the phone perpetrating the scam at the same time — what she described as a “boiler room.”

“The more calls they make, the more money they’re going to make and the more information they can glean, which they can then sell,” Driggs said.

In addition to Utah, recent cases have also surfaced in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

Driggs said in some of the calls the scammers claim they are certified with the Better Business Bureau.

She recommended calling and double-checking those kinds of claims, and reporting phone numbers linked to these scams to the Federal Trade Commission.

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Andrew Adams

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