Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Did you receive a call from 855-687-1444? This is another phishing scam. The scammer robocalls as many numbers as they can and when you answer, you hear the following recording:
This is a message from your computer support company regarding your computer refund. Call on 1-855-687-1444 as our company is shutting down. That is why we are ... calling you to refund your money that you paid to us. Please call on 1-855-687-1444 to claim your money from Windows and Apple support. Thank you.
You can hear a recording of this scam here: (the recording will download and then you can open it and play it - it is just a recording)
Click here to listen to a recording of the Apple-Microsoft-Support-Refund Scam Call
Don't fall for it. It is a scam. Think about it for one minute: have you ever heard of ANY company calling up and saying they owe you a refund? And this recording claims to represent 2 different companies, apple and Microsoft, who are direct competitors. If you call them back or follow their instructions you will lose money and possibly your identity!
They call at 2 pm and play the computer-generated male voice, saying: "This is a message from you computer support company regarding your computer refund. Call on 1-855-687-1444 as our company is shutting down. That is why we are ... calling you to refund your money that you paid to us. Please call on 1-855-687-1444 to claim your money from Windows and Apple support. Thank you."
Just ignore it and block their number. Generally, it is helpful to avoid answering any calls you do not recognize, so you have time to consider and research any demands that might have been left on voicemail. There are now free phone apps that help to interecpt calls that are know to be coming from scammers. One that we have found to be very effective is TrueCaller. It displays any known information about callers as the calls come in, and alerts you about calls coming from numbers that others have reported to be scams.
Apple offers the following advice:
If you get a suspicious phone call or voicemail:
Scammers spoof phone numbers and use flattery and threats to pressure you into giving them information, money, and even iTunes gift cards. Always verify the caller's identity before you provide any personal information. If you get an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Apple, hang up and contact us directly.
Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers use scare tactics to trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services that supposedly fix contrived device, platform, or software problems.
Scammers may call you directly on your phone and pretend to be representatives of a software company. They might even spoof the caller ID so that it displays a legitimate support phone number from a trusted company. They can then ask you to install applications that give them remote access to your device. Using remote access, these experienced scammers can misrepresent normal system output as signs of problems.
There are several websites that focus on reports of scam phone calls.
The links below go to pages on these other websites were you can read reports about the scams associated with this phone number (855-687-1444, claiming our company is shutting down. That is why we are calling you to refund your money... Apple or Windows Support):
There are a number of common telephone scams, such as:
and some new and as yet, uncommon scams.
See these pages for guidance as applicable to your specific situation:
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.