These people were supposed to fix one PC that had a trojan. Instead they remotely accessed both of my computes and changed permission and administrative actions. I still have a trojan on the PC and my new laptop is now basically unusable. I can't do anything except get online for email and games.
I have been using SpamFighter for at least a couple of years, in conjunction with Mozilla Thunderbird Email. It's very useful.
Spamfighter came up for license renewal a couple of days ago and I went through the process with them.
I succumbed to their suggestion to acquire DriverFighter along with the SpamFighter renewal at a "bargain" price for doing them both, together.
I downloaded DriverFighter and tried to install it. The install failed, but apparently it partially (at least) installed and was capable of running and telling me I had 20 drivers needing updating. To proceed, I had to enter the license key, which I had received in an email from [email protected], which looked genuine enough, EXCEPT for the following:
This email also stated that, "To activate the Product key, please call (888) 248-4794. THIS SEEMED VERY STRANGE, as I have never (in literally 47 years of computer experience (working in IT, not just at home) come across such a weird and unnecessary requirement.
Instead of immediately calling the number, I tried copying and pasting the key (from the email I received) into the DriverFighter "Account" "Submit Product Key" box then clicking on the Submit button, then it told me, "There was an internal error activating this product key. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact Support." In decades of PC and Mac and other computing with all sorts of occasional problems (we all have), I've NEVER come across a simple on-line license key registration issue!
I called the support number and the guy (Tyler) sounded like he's in a scammy boiler room, people yelling all over the place, and asking me "What's wrong with your computer?" and stupid questions that were clearly a come-on to buying something. I assumed he wanted me to buy some more software products, but from the 10 other complaints about these folks I can see they wanted to scam me to PAY THEM TO TAKE OVER MY COMPUTER and royally screw it up to feed the scam even further if possible.
I spoke with Tyler's manager, Steve, who gave a glib explanation that sounded semi-legit, then went back to Tyler who took me to the next step.
Since Tyler wanted to connect to my computer (through fix22.com) to "help" me set the product key, I was extremely SUSPICIOUS, over and above the concerns I've just mentioned. The last thing I need is for some level-zero jerks to be rampaging round my nice hot Win 8 64-bit machine, wrecking everything and opening it up for exploitation by them and anyone else in their lousy business.
The last straw was that my BitDefender program - which I only bought a couple of months ago after doing oodles of research and deciding that it was a good and honest product - told me:
BITDEFENDER BLOCKED THIS PAGE. This page is blocked by BitDefender anti-malware filter. With a button to click on to TAKE ME BACK TO SAFETY.
This convinced me that I needed to stay away from these unprincipled turds and get my money back rather than get sucked into their game. They actually were polite about that and gave me a "Refund#" and the fighterhelp.com URL to use for that purpose. I guess they are semi-professional about ripping people off while appearing to be legitimate.
My big question is this - still to be pursued: HOW DID SPAMFIGHTER GET ALLIED WITH THESE BASTARDS, OR DID THE LATTER FOLKS PHISH MY EMAIL FROM SPAMFIGHTER, TO MAKE IT LOOK LEGIT BUT NOT?
The part in qotation marks is from anthother complaint but exactly describes my situation. I will add my stuff as needed.
"I was having problems with my computer, which has been slow of late. Performed all basic procedures, deleting files, etc. Microsoft "Help" directed me to speedyPC as a "Certified" partner. I ran the test, trusting Microsoft. I was informed I had [914] problems with my computer. I requested "fix" only to be prompted for $29.95. I purchased the product, only to find out that I was buying ANOTHER program for $9.95 [as well, in addition] about which I knew nothing. My account was already charged. To activate software I had to call an 800 number, which set off an alarm. The party on the other end then went into my computer and started telling me a bunch of nonsense about the control panels he was bringing up, such as my processor utilization being way too low even though nothing was being processed, that ALL my programs should be running, "
He pulled up the huge list of events with the event viewer on my computer (making it look like he had special software to do it) and then began telling me horror stories. The significance of some of the events were lost to me so I took his word for it at the time. It took an hour for another tech to start this "difficult" job of cleaning up my computer.
When the tech finally began, "I then witnessed, I could have activated [this] myself, so the number was just another lie to drag people in to getting charged for more services. I then found out that I had not only been charged, but that I had been SUBSCRIBED for the same costs annually. I had to go back through their complicated system to unsubscribe.
I have started the system twice but stopped after it reported several problems that don't exist or are unimportant. The cleanup that was performed deleted old programs that I wanted to keep and altered the system by deleting or hiding options that I use constantly. I have spent several hours putting my computer back together. The service performed was basically stuff that I have done myself with the help of another very reliable clean up program.
When this was finished, I was instructed to phone again to discuss "serious" issues with the tech resulting from his service. That was just more scam to sell me $200 worth of "back door" anti malware protection. At this point I was already in for approx $300 Cadn so put my foot down.
I intend to uninstall anything to do with SpeedyPC. I don't trust it As for my money, I guess its down the drain. I don't have time to pursue it. I will lick my wounds and be more aware next time.
I got talked into a computer clean-up/maintanence program with ATS. I gave them aremote access to my computer and in the course of two days, and multiple technicians, they destroyed my perfectly good Dell Optiplex computer; corrupting registrey and administrative privileges, locking folders that could not be unlocked, changing files to "read-only" which coulkd no be changed back, uninstalled a registered Adobe program and replaced it with an unregistered version. I coulkd not send emails with attachments, could not open graphics files in Photoshop, and could not place photos in InDesign, etc. etc.
There was nothing wrong with my computer before the "tune-up". It cost me $200 to reinstall Win7 and 4-5 hours to reinstall dozens of programs and data folders. The total cost to me and my time was around $1000 and that doesn't include two days wasted dealing with ATS on the phone. They could not fix it, and had no solution, so finally I had enough and asked for refund which thay said they would process.
It's mindboggling to me that a company that represents itself as a computer experts can do something like this. All you have to do is serch online for reviews and you'll se similar experiences. I wish I had thought of that prior to. Live and learn.
I thought I was being smart researching this company before I purchased their registry cleaner and services to fix my computer. They appeared to have some really good writeups on the web. I am convinced they have no idea what they are doing.
They have fixed nothing despite having control of my computer for approximately 4 hours twice. After they initially went in to fix my computer and stated the work was done I went to use it and discovered I had many of the same problems. I called them back and they again took control of the computer and sent it to a tech. Fell asleep waiting for the tech, 4 hours later the little hourglass was on my computer indicating nobody had been on the other end to look at it.
I was so angry I shut down the computer and called them where I encountered an extremely rude tech that insisted I should leave my computer open until somebody had the time to look at it. Didn't agree that a 4 hour wait seemed excessive. Tried to tell this woman that leaving my computer open like that was the same thing as hiring a repairman and then leaving my home unattended. She told me that she couldn't help me then.
What really made me angry was they or she had deleted Adobe Flash from my computer making it useless to see images or other things I need that for. When I asked her why she said it was corrupt. I insisted she download it back and she also downloaded MacAfee AntiVirus.
When I asked her why she did that since i already have Norton AntiVirus she didn't even answer. I am so sorry I didn't just take it somewhere reputable out in town. It would have been worth the inconvenience. This company is terrible.
I had discovered last night that I couldn't get my netflix to stream on my PC so the next morning I sought internet assistance. I updated some updates it had been a while since I logged on to my laptop). Troubleshooting Netflix I found Driver Update which I downloaded. It's kinda all scrambled eggs how I got to Advanced Tech Support, but I agreed to purchase a download from them for $39.98 I think? and to receive confirmation and activation, they had me call (800) 987-4501. I spoke with a man named Mike, as I gave him permission to drive my PC explaining to him the Netflix problem I was having. He went to a place on my PC that showed how much overload it was doing and explained that it was much like a car and shouldn't be working so hard. He spoke to me about how scary it is these days about identity theft, that a credit card is simple as you can just call the bank to notify but identity theft is not.He explained that it's pretty bad these days and after showing me the many overlaying programs I did not realize I had running, he offered me the fix-it-all for a hefty price of $198.98 additional Xmas offer discount. Conversation lasted for an hour then he told me someone would be calling me back but I highly doubt they would need to call you. I was called an hour later from Engineer 9 who requested me to prompt my netflix account and password. Quickly assisted him then stepped away for another few hours with phone in hand just in case they called again. I repeatedly saw this user try to troubleshoot my dilemma. The assistant downloaded Total Uninstall 5 and some other stuff I can't figure out. I saw ALL my passwords I've ever kept(that I believe he was trying to copy paste to get into my Netflix account. Then a few minutes later I was prompted a screen that stated something along the lines of our tech supporter has some important information regarding your PC. Please call. I picked up my phone to call the number and a woman verified my name, then told me I have very little protection and how he could offer me $100.00 for malware and $100.00 for virus protection "which is caught at the front door of the PC. I told her I already spent a fortune trying to get my pc back to normal again and could not purchase any protection today but that it will be my priority to do so as soon as possible. She quickly said thank you and have a nice day. Problem is: Netflix is still not working, and there is no report of what they did if they even did anything but look at all my personal information from 11:00 am mtn time to roughly about 3:30 pm. From what I see from my PC, nothing is different except their desktop shortcuts of what I guess I gave them permission to do, but didn't realize. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Also when I was played to purchase the big fix-it-all, they requested a second credit card to purchase the 198.98 bundle which makes me very nervous. I'm very sad scams like this hurts hard working families. Thank you for reading my dilemma.
Two days ago I intended to contact a company I had registered with called PC Pro who provides periodic computer scans s requested. The problem with their service that I experienced was that they systematically removed content from my computer that I did not want removed including Trend Micro, another computer virus protction service I had with he Geek Squad division of Bet Buy which I paid for.
I went to the PC Pro site to call them and the 800 number they provided contacted me with Advanced Tech Support. Their representative, a man named Vinny said they were an authorized repair service of PC Pro. I told him of the problems I was having which are too numerous to mention here and he asked me to authorize his taking over of my computer which I did.
He immediately informed me that I had real serious problems and that they could corect them but it would require purchasing a system called PANDA for $499. When I refused to buy something that expensive he said he could get authorization to reduce the cost to $200 because I was a senior citizen and a veteren but I would still have to pay their tech $199 one time fee to fix my prblems and additinally it would cost $19.99 per month to use free future tech service.
He assured me that all my problems would be corrected and I would never again receive any pop-ups. All of this was false. I also found out that PANDA and PANDA CLOUD are free available downloads.
They told me that if their were any problems, I was entitled to a full 30 day unconditional refund.
In fairness, I have not yet requested a refund but I intend to do so tomorrow. Whether they gratiously honor the refund request or refuse the refund request, I will in either instance post a follow up to let you know the outcome.
I have been having trouble with my computer freezing up constantly and needing to be restarted numerous times of the day. I was contacted online by Advanced Tech Support on 12-2-2013 to help with my computer issues. They said they could fix this problem plus add needed Security Software and add a monthly service for any other problems that may come up in the future. It took hours for them to complete this and I was told that everything was fixed and working properly and that my computer was now secure. The charges noted above totaling $359.85 were withdrawn from my bank account for the work that they said they performed in all those hours.
I waited until 12-14-13 to call them back because the computer was still freezing up exactly the same way it did before their assistance. They again tried to fix the problem by taking hours again to supposedly repair the problem.
After all the hours spent tying up my computer and also my time “holding on the phone”, I had enough of their NOT fixing anything. I called them and told them I wanted my money back because they had not done anything for that kind of money. The gentleman put me on hold to wait for his supervisor and that man was extremely rude and had me on hold while he “removed” the files. I didn’t know until later that he also removed the Panda Security which I paid for.
I called Advance Tech as my computer was a little slow so they sold me a bill of goods, $100 for Panda, $204.99 and $59.94 for something and then starting the first of August $14.99 per month to keep my contract open so a total of about $439.99
down the drain. I had to call them almost every other day as my computer locked up and then they told me not to open face book if it was not shared by my friends.
I found out that they cut off most of the safe guards on my computer so anyone could come in and take what they wanted thank God I did not bank by mail. I was told I am gullible to identy theft now from what they did. I would like my money back as I have been screwed.
Advanced Tech Support Reviews
These people were supposed to fix one PC that had a trojan. Instead they remotely accessed both of my computes and changed permission and administrative actions. I still have a trojan on the PC and my new laptop is now basically unusable. I can't do anything except get online for email and games.
I have been using SpamFighter for at least a couple of years, in conjunction with Mozilla Thunderbird Email. It's very useful.
Spamfighter came up for license renewal a couple of days ago and I went through the process with them.
I succumbed to their suggestion to acquire DriverFighter along with the SpamFighter renewal at a "bargain" price for doing them both, together.
I downloaded DriverFighter and tried to install it. The install failed, but apparently it partially (at least) installed and was capable of running and telling me I had 20 drivers needing updating. To proceed, I had to enter the license key, which I had received in an email from [email protected], which looked genuine enough, EXCEPT for the following:
This email also stated that, "To activate the Product key, please call (888) 248-4794. THIS SEEMED VERY STRANGE, as I have never (in literally 47 years of computer experience (working in IT, not just at home) come across such a weird and unnecessary requirement.
Instead of immediately calling the number, I tried copying and pasting the key (from the email I received) into the DriverFighter "Account" "Submit Product Key" box then clicking on the Submit button, then it told me, "There was an internal error activating this product key. Please try again later. If the problem persists, please contact Support." In decades of PC and Mac and other computing with all sorts of occasional problems (we all have), I've NEVER come across a simple on-line license key registration issue!
I called the support number and the guy (Tyler) sounded like he's in a scammy boiler room, people yelling all over the place, and asking me "What's wrong with your computer?" and stupid questions that were clearly a come-on to buying something. I assumed he wanted me to buy some more software products, but from the 10 other complaints about these folks I can see they wanted to scam me to PAY THEM TO TAKE OVER MY COMPUTER and royally screw it up to feed the scam even further if possible.
I spoke with Tyler's manager, Steve, who gave a glib explanation that sounded semi-legit, then went back to Tyler who took me to the next step.
Since Tyler wanted to connect to my computer (through fix22.com) to "help" me set the product key, I was extremely SUSPICIOUS, over and above the concerns I've just mentioned. The last thing I need is for some level-zero jerks to be rampaging round my nice hot Win 8 64-bit machine, wrecking everything and opening it up for exploitation by them and anyone else in their lousy business.
The last straw was that my BitDefender program - which I only bought a couple of months ago after doing oodles of research and deciding that it was a good and honest product - told me:
BITDEFENDER BLOCKED THIS PAGE. This page is blocked by BitDefender anti-malware filter. With a button to click on to TAKE ME BACK TO SAFETY.
This convinced me that I needed to stay away from these unprincipled turds and get my money back rather than get sucked into their game. They actually were polite about that and gave me a "Refund#" and the fighterhelp.com URL to use for that purpose. I guess they are semi-professional about ripping people off while appearing to be legitimate.
My big question is this - still to be pursued: HOW DID SPAMFIGHTER GET ALLIED WITH THESE BASTARDS, OR DID THE LATTER FOLKS PHISH MY EMAIL FROM SPAMFIGHTER, TO MAKE IT LOOK LEGIT BUT NOT?
The part in qotation marks is from anthother complaint but exactly describes my situation. I will add my stuff as needed.
"I was having problems with my computer, which has been slow of late. Performed all basic procedures, deleting files, etc. Microsoft "Help" directed me to speedyPC as a "Certified" partner. I ran the test, trusting Microsoft. I was informed I had [914] problems with my computer. I requested "fix" only to be prompted for $29.95. I purchased the product, only to find out that I was buying ANOTHER program for $9.95 [as well, in addition] about which I knew nothing. My account was already charged. To activate software I had to call an 800 number, which set off an alarm. The party on the other end then went into my computer and started telling me a bunch of nonsense about the control panels he was bringing up, such as my processor utilization being way too low even though nothing was being processed, that ALL my programs should be running, "
He pulled up the huge list of events with the event viewer on my computer (making it look like he had special software to do it) and then began telling me horror stories. The significance of some of the events were lost to me so I took his word for it at the time. It took an hour for another tech to start this "difficult" job of cleaning up my computer.
When the tech finally began, "I then witnessed, I could have activated [this] myself, so the number was just another lie to drag people in to getting charged for more services. I then found out that I had not only been charged, but that I had been SUBSCRIBED for the same costs annually. I had to go back through their complicated system to unsubscribe.
I have started the system twice but stopped after it reported several problems that don't exist or are unimportant. The cleanup that was performed deleted old programs that I wanted to keep and altered the system by deleting or hiding options that I use constantly. I have spent several hours putting my computer back together. The service performed was basically stuff that I have done myself with the help of another very reliable clean up program.
When this was finished, I was instructed to phone again to discuss "serious" issues with the tech resulting from his service. That was just more scam to sell me $200 worth of "back door" anti malware protection. At this point I was already in for approx $300 Cadn so put my foot down.
I intend to uninstall anything to do with SpeedyPC. I don't trust it As for my money, I guess its down the drain. I don't have time to pursue it. I will lick my wounds and be more aware next time.
I got talked into a computer clean-up/maintanence program with ATS. I gave them aremote access to my computer and in the course of two days, and multiple technicians, they destroyed my perfectly good Dell Optiplex computer; corrupting registrey and administrative privileges, locking folders that could not be unlocked, changing files to "read-only" which coulkd no be changed back, uninstalled a registered Adobe program and replaced it with an unregistered version. I coulkd not send emails with attachments, could not open graphics files in Photoshop, and could not place photos in InDesign, etc. etc.
There was nothing wrong with my computer before the "tune-up". It cost me $200 to reinstall Win7 and 4-5 hours to reinstall dozens of programs and data folders. The total cost to me and my time was around $1000 and that doesn't include two days wasted dealing with ATS on the phone. They could not fix it, and had no solution, so finally I had enough and asked for refund which thay said they would process.
It's mindboggling to me that a company that represents itself as a computer experts can do something like this. All you have to do is serch online for reviews and you'll se similar experiences. I wish I had thought of that prior to. Live and learn.
I thought I was being smart researching this company before I purchased their registry cleaner and services to fix my computer. They appeared to have some really good writeups on the web. I am convinced they have no idea what they are doing.
They have fixed nothing despite having control of my computer for approximately 4 hours twice. After they initially went in to fix my computer and stated the work was done I went to use it and discovered I had many of the same problems. I called them back and they again took control of the computer and sent it to a tech. Fell asleep waiting for the tech, 4 hours later the little hourglass was on my computer indicating nobody had been on the other end to look at it.
I was so angry I shut down the computer and called them where I encountered an extremely rude tech that insisted I should leave my computer open until somebody had the time to look at it. Didn't agree that a 4 hour wait seemed excessive. Tried to tell this woman that leaving my computer open like that was the same thing as hiring a repairman and then leaving my home unattended. She told me that she couldn't help me then.
What really made me angry was they or she had deleted Adobe Flash from my computer making it useless to see images or other things I need that for. When I asked her why she said it was corrupt. I insisted she download it back and she also downloaded MacAfee AntiVirus.
When I asked her why she did that since i already have Norton AntiVirus she didn't even answer. I am so sorry I didn't just take it somewhere reputable out in town. It would have been worth the inconvenience. This company is terrible.
when i try to sign in to advancedtechsupport i am asked to enter a PIN which i have not been given i can't get any further
I had discovered last night that I couldn't get my netflix to stream on my PC so the next morning I sought internet assistance. I updated some updates it had been a while since I logged on to my laptop). Troubleshooting Netflix I found Driver Update which I downloaded. It's kinda all scrambled eggs how I got to Advanced Tech Support, but I agreed to purchase a download from them for $39.98 I think? and to receive confirmation and activation, they had me call (800) 987-4501. I spoke with a man named Mike, as I gave him permission to drive my PC explaining to him the Netflix problem I was having. He went to a place on my PC that showed how much overload it was doing and explained that it was much like a car and shouldn't be working so hard. He spoke to me about how scary it is these days about identity theft, that a credit card is simple as you can just call the bank to notify but identity theft is not.He explained that it's pretty bad these days and after showing me the many overlaying programs I did not realize I had running, he offered me the fix-it-all for a hefty price of $198.98 additional Xmas offer discount. Conversation lasted for an hour then he told me someone would be calling me back but I highly doubt they would need to call you. I was called an hour later from Engineer 9 who requested me to prompt my netflix account and password. Quickly assisted him then stepped away for another few hours with phone in hand just in case they called again. I repeatedly saw this user try to troubleshoot my dilemma. The assistant downloaded Total Uninstall 5 and some other stuff I can't figure out. I saw ALL my passwords I've ever kept(that I believe he was trying to copy paste to get into my Netflix account. Then a few minutes later I was prompted a screen that stated something along the lines of our tech supporter has some important information regarding your PC. Please call. I picked up my phone to call the number and a woman verified my name, then told me I have very little protection and how he could offer me $100.00 for malware and $100.00 for virus protection "which is caught at the front door of the PC. I told her I already spent a fortune trying to get my pc back to normal again and could not purchase any protection today but that it will be my priority to do so as soon as possible. She quickly said thank you and have a nice day. Problem is: Netflix is still not working, and there is no report of what they did if they even did anything but look at all my personal information from 11:00 am mtn time to roughly about 3:30 pm. From what I see from my PC, nothing is different except their desktop shortcuts of what I guess I gave them permission to do, but didn't realize. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Also when I was played to purchase the big fix-it-all, they requested a second credit card to purchase the 198.98 bundle which makes me very nervous. I'm very sad scams like this hurts hard working families. Thank you for reading my dilemma.
Two days ago I intended to contact a company I had registered with called PC Pro who provides periodic computer scans s requested. The problem with their service that I experienced was that they systematically removed content from my computer that I did not want removed including Trend Micro, another computer virus protction service I had with he Geek Squad division of Bet Buy which I paid for.
I went to the PC Pro site to call them and the 800 number they provided contacted me with Advanced Tech Support. Their representative, a man named Vinny said they were an authorized repair service of PC Pro. I told him of the problems I was having which are too numerous to mention here and he asked me to authorize his taking over of my computer which I did.
He immediately informed me that I had real serious problems and that they could corect them but it would require purchasing a system called PANDA for $499. When I refused to buy something that expensive he said he could get authorization to reduce the cost to $200 because I was a senior citizen and a veteren but I would still have to pay their tech $199 one time fee to fix my prblems and additinally it would cost $19.99 per month to use free future tech service.
He assured me that all my problems would be corrected and I would never again receive any pop-ups. All of this was false. I also found out that PANDA and PANDA CLOUD are free available downloads.
They told me that if their were any problems, I was entitled to a full 30 day unconditional refund.
In fairness, I have not yet requested a refund but I intend to do so tomorrow. Whether they gratiously honor the refund request or refuse the refund request, I will in either instance post a follow up to let you know the outcome.
RE: Purchases from Advanced Tech Support
Ref DRUP-U031231-1LHC $49.87
Ref System Config/Startup $194.99
Ref Monthly Service $14.99/month
Ref Installation of Panda Security System $100.00
I have been having trouble with my computer freezing up constantly and needing to be restarted numerous times of the day. I was contacted online by Advanced Tech Support on 12-2-2013 to help with my computer issues. They said they could fix this problem plus add needed Security Software and add a monthly service for any other problems that may come up in the future. It took hours for them to complete this and I was told that everything was fixed and working properly and that my computer was now secure. The charges noted above totaling $359.85 were withdrawn from my bank account for the work that they said they performed in all those hours.
I waited until 12-14-13 to call them back because the computer was still freezing up exactly the same way it did before their assistance. They again tried to fix the problem by taking hours again to supposedly repair the problem.
After all the hours spent tying up my computer and also my time “holding on the phone”, I had enough of their NOT fixing anything. I called them and told them I wanted my money back because they had not done anything for that kind of money. The gentleman put me on hold to wait for his supervisor and that man was extremely rude and had me on hold while he “removed” the files. I didn’t know until later that he also removed the Panda Security which I paid for.
I called Advance Tech as my computer was a little slow so they sold me a bill of goods, $100 for Panda, $204.99 and $59.94 for something and then starting the first of August $14.99 per month to keep my contract open so a total of about $439.99
down the drain. I had to call them almost every other day as my computer locked up and then they told me not to open face book if it was not shared by my friends.
I found out that they cut off most of the safe guards on my computer so anyone could come in and take what they wanted thank God I did not bank by mail. I was told I am gullible to identy theft now from what they did. I would like my money back as I have been screwed.
This started July 31, 2016.