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Beware of Fraudulent iPhone Support!

K

krravi

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 30, 2010
1,173
0
My nephew who has an iPhone 5 came to me and said his Lock button was only responding occasionally.

So I asked him to google apple support number and give them a call..

He googled and ended up with this link,

apple.support.mytechhelp.com/ 1 (877) 506 7341

So I called and the guy picked up the phone and had a very thick chinese accent to the point of me not being able to understand him. Anyway's told the issue and he asked for the serial number etc.. and then handed the phone to my Nephew to go through the process while I was busy with something else.

He ran to me after a while and said the guy wanted $119.00 and to give him the credit card number asap.

I got suspicious and asked if I am talking to Apple? He said "Yes".(He got the name in the URL doesn't he?Gotcha!)

So asked him why he needs money when its under warranty and he replied "This is user created error".... and got into a heated argument and then it dawned to me that this is soooo NOT Apple. Hung the phone after giving him some choice words. Throughout this 30 minute ordeal he kept putting me in hold to talk to his "Supervisor"(partner in crime) like 12 or more times. I feel stupid to not have caught it initially.

There is no such site, but just a phone number. It is cleverly named to catch unwary users into their trap.

Finally called the REAL Apple and they offered to look at the phone and replace it if defective. I told them about the google search and how that bogus company jumps out at you in the search results.

Apple said it is aware of that and is taking legal action for using its name.

So anyways beware of that site/phone number.
 
Last edited:
adnbek said:
In case your nephew handed over your apple id and password, i'd change the password as well.
Click to expand...

Yes good point. I forgot to ask him but will do so ASAP. I think he got the house address and number because he was pretending he is Apple and trying to send us a pre stamped box to send the phone....
 
krravi said:
Yes good point. I forgot to ask him but will do so ASAP. I think he got the house address and number because he was pretending he is Apple and trying to send us a pre stamped box to send the phone....
Click to expand...

Also, change the password recovery questions and answers as the guy may have pulled them up and asked your nephew for the answers.
 
I hate scammers with a passion. Good thing you caught on. Always go directly to the apple website for information like finding numbers I rarely trust anything I search for anymore that doesn't look legit and I always cross check before giving into out over the phone.
 
dictoresno said:
I hate scammers with a passion. Good thing you caught on. Always go directly to the apple website for information like finding numbers I rarely trust anything I search for anymore that doesn't look legit and I always cross check before giving into out over the phone.
Click to expand...

I was busy fixing a leaking tap in the garden and so I wasn't paying much attention, plus the scammer had even copied the Apple support voice prompts perfectly!

I asked him twice if this was Apple as his accent was too thick to be working in Apple customer support and he said "YES"!

Plus, Apple makes it hard to find its 1 800 number. Looks like you have to go here

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/ and then choose the very small font of "contact us".

Hard to do all that in a small phone. So thought google search was quick! And how wrong I was.
 
It's most likely hard to find, just like other contact us info you find on websites, because they would rather you email them or fill out their web request forms for Support as opposed to calling.
 
When trying to assess the validity of a web address, always look at what's directly before .com

Or you'll end up inputting your password on something like paypal.noreally.com one day.
 
adnbek said:
Well, that's your mistake right there. You should always ask three times.

/sarcasm ;)
Click to expand...

Honestly, I agree. What else was he gonna say? "No sir, I'm a scammer."

Next time, have him leave the adult decisions and calling up to you.

For what it's worth, I found a cheesy looking website that was selling hard to find replacement parts for my dirt bike. I ordered the part ($30) against my better judgement. The site looked like a homemade geocities type of site, nothing very impressive. There was a YouTube video on the site where a heavily accented Chinese guy was showing off their huge "Texas" based warehouse. The part too a month to deliver, obviously from china, and both the 800 and local Texas number both went to voicemails claiming to be closed and had business hours beginning around 5pm central time (wtf). They were obviously operating out of china and claiming to be USA based, likely out of some kind of drop ship/forwarding facility. In the end, the part didn't fit and was never able to get ahold of anyone by phone or email. PayPal initiated an investigation and stated they would try to chargeback. The seller offered me half my money back which I refused. Ended up trying for over a month to get a hold of him after that with nothing. PayPal said they would investigate the shell operation and likely suspend his Paypal abilities. I refuse to deal with overseas sellers now. If the seller can't speak proper English or has horrible grammar in an email, I'm no longer dealing with them.
 
Last edited:
I did a search and the same thing showed up with the goggle ad box.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk 21369080478.754459.jpg


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2
 
dictoresno said:
It's most likely hard to find, just like other contact us info you find on websites, because they would rather you email them or fill out their web request forms for Support as opposed to calling.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'd rather have that here in Germany, too. I often spend a long time searching sites for the support email address because here, they want you to call them as it's often a charged service.
 
Everybody should know the Internet is a load lot of crap marketing sell-u-something, grab-your-information place.

You have to develop a sense of "Uh, they shouldn't be asking me this!"

Am sure the punks at BestBuys.com (with the extra S) purposely made it that way.
 
Free antifraud advice!:

Send your credit card and social security number to: me@NOTaScam.com

I guarantee I am not a scammer.

100% no scam guarantee or triple your money back.

I promise!
 
Contrary to some people's opinions, it's easy to find support info on the Apple site. Just do the obvious, click on "Contact us" on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. All will be revealed! ;)
 
Mytechhelp.com

I too got scammed by these people. My iPhone update failed as i was at the airport to go to Europe for a month. My husband searched Google for apple support and sent me the phone # (he was not on the trip). Long story short, they were of NO help, it cost $119.00 and I just found another $19.99 charge on my credit card. I thought the $119 was for a year, but they said it was for a month... I cancelled my subscription and they are supposedly refunding the $19.99. Once that is credited, I will dispute the original charge. Good to know that Apple is trying to stop the bogus ads.
 
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