I wanted to get this week’s edition of the Beauty Spotlight Team all set to go for today because I know everyone has stuff to do on New Year’s Eve day. But I had a rather distressing thing happen on Friday night that kind of slowed me down. Got time for a quick story?
My HP printer that was more than 5 years old stopped printing black ink because it dried up from me not printing frequently enough. I couldn’t fix it, so I decided to buy a new printer before year’s end so I could deduct the purchase. I bought another HP printer because I had good luck with the last one, got good tech support from HP in the early years of the printer (help with setup etc.), and I got 15% off the purchase by recycling my old HP printer at Best Buy where I bought the new one.
I decided to install the printer on Friday night. The salesman told me it would be easy. I plugged it in, put in the cartridges, loaded the paper, and calibrated the printing arms. Next, I had to connect the new printer to my wireless network. I couldn’t remember how I did it the last time because it was so long ago. I decided to call HP Support like I did years ago.
I googled HP Support, and without thinking, I clicked on the first URL that came up. It was “123.hp.com”. As I quickly looked at the site, I noticed that a chat box came up and someone started typing on the screen. I don’t always do screen chat, but I went with it. I even thought to myself that HP sure was customer-oriented and eager to help! Foolish me!
The guy in the on screen chat box, “Paul”, asked what kind of help I needed, and then told me he could help me set up my printer. He asked if he could share my screen to download the software he said I needed. Since I had done screen sharing with Apple in the past, I said yes. Mistake number 1. With Apple screen share, I have to click and do things myself in response to Apple’s directions. But this guy was moving around my screen doing things on his own. He downloaded files. He opened my System Preferences. He opened my Network file. Then he typed in the chat box that there was a problem with my network. He said he needed to talk to a technician about my problem.
Several minutes later, he came back on screen and wrote that they needed to repair something in my network. I told him my network was working fine, and that I was going to return the printer. He said that wouldn’t make a difference because my network was the problem. Then he typed that his Microsoft technician could fix it, but that I would have to pay $99.99 to have my network fixed. He typed that if they couldn’t fix it, they wouldn’t charge me.
I got very upset, and wondered if something was not right with this guy. I called the 888 phone number on the website thinking I was calling HP to find out if this guy Paul online was legit. A man with an Indian accent answered the phone. OK, I thought, maybe HP uses an overseas call center at night. I told him what happened, and he concurred that the problem was on my end and I had to pay them to “fix it”. Then I really freaked out, hung up my phone, disconnected the screen share as soon as I could. The guy on the phone tried to call me back 5 times, and my iPhone showed the incoming call as “Suspected Spam”. Very creepy.
I called the Geek Squad at my local Best Buy right away. When I explained what happened, the young man on the phone told me that I had contacted a fraudulent website posing as HP. He said never to click on the first URL that comes up in a search, and never to call a phone number that starts with 888. Anyway, those guys were definitely scammers that I contacted by mistake.
I was very upset because the phony guy online downloaded files, probably malware, onto my computer. So I called Apple Support, and got a really nice Apple tech support person who helped me run Malware detection software. We removed 3 fraudulent files that were downloaded onto my computer. Frankly, I’m still concerned there may be more so I will call back again tomorrow. He also helped me finish installing my HP printer and helped me connect it to my network. That’s why I pay Apple the big bucks for their products – because the tech support is really good.
I’m telling this tale to warn you not to be as impulsive as I was. I was in too much of a hurry, and I screwed up. I’m hoping that this will have a happy ending. But as my friend, Laura, told me: don’t use a credit card or do any banking on this computer in case there may be some software lurking that could capture my passwords. Ugh.
End of story. For now anyway.
I hope you and yours have a Happy Healthy and Fun New Year whatever you are up to. Hope 2018 is a good year for everyone. Stay safe!
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Allison you are your own hero for figuring this out. Truth be told HP is notorious for poor tech support, with consumer after consumer complaining of time wasted & printers still not working AND when I was on the legit HP website trying to wade thru the obtuse written directions for my new printer(there are no coincidences?) the chatter asked to take over my computer as well(I freaked & chatter went right on to give me lots of bad useless info until I gave up & figured out on my own how to). So many legit customer service folks working from India, The Philippines etc. for major US companies–not that they are any better trained than the ones in Idaho . I don’t think any of them have ever seen or operated the devices they are reading from a script to advise us on–and yes I’m talking abut the legit reps. That’s what makes Apple tech support so special still. The store staff nowadays don’t have any institutional memory/knowledge of past setups but the phone people—they helped me unfreeze after downloading the new OS for my new laptop while I was tending to a friend in the ER—that’s how patient and clear they were!
Don’t know why Apple sells/recommends HP, but glad they stepped up!
Thank you, Mahaila! Somehow, I was lucky when I bought my last HP printer – I actually got terrific tech support from them over the phone. They walked me through every step, so I thought why not try them again. Apple didn’t recommend HP to me, I chose it and bought it at Best Buy. Actually, setting it up was easy, and once the Apple tech reminded me how to do it, adding the new printer to my network was easy. Also, the Apple tech guy said that I could have just called Apple and they would have walked me through the set up! Amazing Happy New Year, Mahaila!
Apple sells only HP printers is what I meant. I had bought my old HP at the apple Store and it was rickety, temperamental and expensive to run. Now they don’t have them in the store but you can order on apple website and pick up in store(I didn’t bc the stores were madness from new iPhone release up until xmas). Glad you are happy with your new printer! I’m celebrating Norwegian Romjul or
“Christmas Space”–the last week of the year. Hope the rest of yours as cozy ! Btw your posts inspired me to sign up for the Sephora box but I couldn’t figure out a way to get you credit for that. Is there?
You are so sweet, Mahaila! No, I don’t think you get “credit” for Sephora Play referrals like with Ipsy, but that’s OK. Thank you for even thinking of it. I hope that you have good luck with the subscription! Enjoy Norwegian Romjul – I must read up on it! Snow is falling lightly out my window. Very atmospheric. And it’s 14 degrees now – a virtual heat wave, lol! I am staying in today 🙂
This could have easily been any of us! Thank you for posting about your experience. I will take a deep breath and read carefully from now on before clicking on any search links!
Thanks, Mary! I hope it never happens to you. Happy New Year!
As they say been there don’t that!! And to this day if I call a tech service and get that feeling I will disconnect. Better to be safe than sorry. Heat wave this minute it’s 17 tonight low of 5.
Haha, Gloria! I hadn’t heard that one. And yes, I will be less impulsive and more deliberate in the future. Where are you? Sounds like the same temps we’ve got here near Boston, brrrrrr!
We try but life gets busy and we start to rush 🙂 morgantown WV and it now is 15 and just stopped snowing. We only got a couple of inches so the roads look clear. If this cold stays around the kids will get a longer school break. Stay warm and safe!
Wow, West Virginia! I didn’t think it got that cold that far south, but you’re in a mountainous state so makes sense. Hope you get a reprieve soon! Happy New Year!
That could so easily have happened to any of us. Thank you for warning us. I’m sorry that happened to you. Hopefully, you managed to get all the files taken off. Keep an eye on your financial info and credit report just in case.
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Thanks, Rachel. I felt like a jerk, but I hope I hung up and cut off the screen sharing before too much damage could be done. Just wanted to warn others to pay more attention to what they are doing when seeking tech support especially from a company that they don’t deal with all the time. I’ll keep an eye on things for sure.
Thank you for sharing this with us. I usually am super sceptical about people online but I can get in a hurry myself and this reinforces what I have read and should know to do and not to do. It has gotten so scary dealing with so many in line these days. So glad you are knowledgeable about enough to realize these people were scammers before you allowed more. Thanks again for sharing this.
Christy, it was a scary experience! Now, I am having some trouble with loading issues with my blog, and I need to have it optimized. I found an optimization consultant through the respected website/app GTMetrics.com but the fellow’s name is Alexei and I’m nervous. I wish he was “Bob”.