Anyone ever hear of these guys?
So here's what happened. My laptop was acting buggy and wouldn't turn on properly, so I used my iPhone to Google "Apple tech support". I clicked the first link and was directed to this service where I was on the line for about 2 hours. The first guy told me my Applecare was out of date and asked if I wanted to spend $200 to renew my warranty. I told him yes. Then I was transferred to a tech support guy who used a remote program to manually access my computer and futz around with stuff. He eventually downloaded an anti-virus software, which was $60 with a $60 he said he'd email me.
2 hours later I got off the phone and checked my email...This company that told me it was Apple tech help was billing me as a company called My Tech Help. I called Apple to see if they were affiliated, and the Apple tech said he had never heard of them. I also Googled them, and every link that showed up said they were scammers. I called my bank and made a claim. They told me to cancel through MTH. I called MTH and cancelled, but they said they had to charge me for "services rendered". They charged me an additional $60 and said my refund would be arriving shortly. I got really suspicious, so I called my bank and they told me immediately to cancel my debit card before the order could process (This was at around 10PM after the bank had closed its daily hours). They said they'd get in touch tomorrow to discuss the claims further. I then spent another hour on the phone with Apple doing damage control trying to deactivate the antivirus software the guy installed for good.
Has anyone heard of these guys or experienced anything similar? These guys at no point claimed to be My Tech Help, they went on as though they were Apple support the entire time. I'm kicking myself for not just typing "Apple.com" into my phone's browser, but desperation and panic make you leap before you look sometimes (They were also the top link on Google, above Apple support). My computer's working fine now, so I wonder if they actually fixed it, but I'm out $320 for a service that wasn't even Apple.
So here's what happened. My laptop was acting buggy and wouldn't turn on properly, so I used my iPhone to Google "Apple tech support". I clicked the first link and was directed to this service where I was on the line for about 2 hours. The first guy told me my Applecare was out of date and asked if I wanted to spend $200 to renew my warranty. I told him yes. Then I was transferred to a tech support guy who used a remote program to manually access my computer and futz around with stuff. He eventually downloaded an anti-virus software, which was $60 with a $60 he said he'd email me.
2 hours later I got off the phone and checked my email...This company that told me it was Apple tech help was billing me as a company called My Tech Help. I called Apple to see if they were affiliated, and the Apple tech said he had never heard of them. I also Googled them, and every link that showed up said they were scammers. I called my bank and made a claim. They told me to cancel through MTH. I called MTH and cancelled, but they said they had to charge me for "services rendered". They charged me an additional $60 and said my refund would be arriving shortly. I got really suspicious, so I called my bank and they told me immediately to cancel my debit card before the order could process (This was at around 10PM after the bank had closed its daily hours). They said they'd get in touch tomorrow to discuss the claims further. I then spent another hour on the phone with Apple doing damage control trying to deactivate the antivirus software the guy installed for good.
Has anyone heard of these guys or experienced anything similar? These guys at no point claimed to be My Tech Help, they went on as though they were Apple support the entire time. I'm kicking myself for not just typing "Apple.com" into my phone's browser, but desperation and panic make you leap before you look sometimes (They were also the top link on Google, above Apple support). My computer's working fine now, so I wonder if they actually fixed it, but I'm out $320 for a service that wasn't even Apple.