- Scammers exploit people searching for customer service numbers online, posing as support.
- Victims, like Brad Whittaker, are tricked into revealing personal and financial information.
- Experts advise visiting official websites and avoiding downloading apps to prevent scams.
OREM — When you need help with some sort of problem — it could be a glitch with a product you've bought or maybe a billing issue with a service you use — your first instinct might be to Google a company's customer support number. It is an instinct scammers are relying on.
Brad Whittaker signed up for a free trial run of YouTube TV.
"To see if it has what we want," he said.
But what Whittaker got was a whole lot of connection trouble, he said. So, he fired up Google to search for YouTube's support hotline.
"I did do quite a bit of searching back and around for quite some time," he said.
When a phone number finally popped up, Whittaker dialed it.
"They said, 'YouTube TV, how can we help you?'" he recalled. The person on the other end first asked him for his account information. But then — bad news.
"'It looks like there's been some fraudulent charges against this account,'" the representative told Whittaker. "We need to identify that you are the actual person that tried to sign up for this."
The rep talked him into downloading remote access software onto his phone.
"That helps us when we're doing work to help our clients," the rep told Whittaker, who then got him to open his banking app.
"He said, 'Well, let's see (if) we can get rid of these fraudulent charges,'" Whittaker said.
The reality is that there were no fraudulent charges. The rep made all that up. He was an impostor who now had access to Whittaker's bank account. In all, Whittaker said he lost $5,000.
Fake numbers everywhere
"If you broke into my home while my family was not there, you would get a lot less," said Kristin Lewis, chief product officer at cybersecurity firm Aura.
She said fake support numbers for trusted brands are everywhere online.
"It is a huge risk that a lot of people, I think, don't think through until you realize it's too late," Lewis said.
You know you're speaking to an impostor rep if they're pressuring you for sensitive personal or financial information. And if they ask you to install any app on your device.
"There's almost no tech support company out there that would really need to download an app on your phone in order to troubleshoot an issue," said Lewis.
She said the best way to dodge an impostor is to not Google a customer service number when you need help. Instead, go directly to the company's website.
Watching for online complaints
Posting a customer service complaint on social media or on an online forum can also put you in the crosshairs of a scammer. Fraudsters are creating fake customer support accounts that respond to those complaints with fake info that can lead to stolen personal and financial info.
