Has my mum been scammed?

tomt82

My mum told me when I came back for Christmas that someone called her phone then took over her computer and fixed some things then charged her for lifetime protection. This was in august.


I've wiped the computer, installed antivirus and malware protection and scanned it and everythings fine. No more money has come out of the Paypal or credit accounts.

So has she been scammed? I tried to find the company the payments reference on Paypal and it appears to be a foreign freelancer IT company called Bytosys in India However the e-mail address in paypal is different from things I have found on the web. I would post a link but I'm a newbie so I can't.

Can I get her money back through Paypal by opening a dispute and what kind of dispute should I class it as? As most of the Paypal options seem to be related to ebay not dodgy people ringing her up.

Could I contact the credit card company? The company was paid through Paypal but money came from the credit card to pay the Paypal balance.

She doesn't have any records of the company just from Paypal. The cost was way over what you would pay for it help or anti virus protection (£340) but they don't seem to have stolen anything

Thanks for any help

djl

It sounds like a call from India they tell you they are from microsoft and your pc has errors and sell you so called software, Sorry it is a scam. There are posts on here about this

unholyangel

S75 doesnt cover third party payments (which is what paypal is). Even if your bank do refund the money, paypal will likely chase your mum for it.

Best bet is maybe to phone paypal, explain the situation and see if there is anything they can do. Did the guy actually tell your mum he was from a certain company or not? Does the company name he said match with the one related to the payment?

What reviews have you found of the company online?

Helix

You need to make sure they haven't put anything nasty on your mums computer too, they usually remotely access it by asking you to install something from a website they ask you to visit. There could be all sorts of backdoors or keyloggers they could have put on which could send credit card and login information to the scammers.

bod1467

I think OP has covered this by a wipe and reinstall.

brettcta

thanks for putting your post in large letters, i often find myself unable to read anything that's posted on here.

but yes, the old bird has been scammed.

you are correct in saying that it is way over what you'd pay for IT help - it's approximately £340 more than you'd normally pay someone over the phone who has cold called you and told you there's something wrong with your computer.

tomt82

I thought there wouldn't be much I could do but I'll give paypal a try and see if they can do anything.
Thanks for the info and help

Helix

bod1467 wrote: »

I think OP has covered this by a wipe and reinstall.

Ah missed that bit, think it was the fact the text was so large caused me to skim over it.

tomt82

Also the one time she doesn't call me for IT help it costs £340! I should start charging her now

Tropez

You might want to get her to keep an eye on her credit files. One of the reasons that they try to gain access to the victim's computer is to steal identifying information from the computer, either by simply stealing the contents of obvious folders such as Documents, or as others have said, through inserting malicious software and keyloggers to steal passwords.

brettcta

tomt82 wrote: »

Also the one time she doesn't call me for IT help it costs £340! I should start charging her now

not to come across as being on my high horse, but i'm always amazed that people fall for these types of scam. i understand that some [older] people aren't that tech savvy, but by exercising the slightest modicum of common sense, they can save themselves a tonne of money.

in an unrelated matter, does your mum need any snake oil? my systems have found that she has dry skin on her heels. a 6 month course of my wonder product will clear that up a treat. i take paypal and western union.