Quick Comp Support Iselin, New  Jersey 08830 Fraudulent Remote Computer Support Service, Get your credit card, charge !89.99 and then disappear. Iselin, New Jersey

I own an I.T. company in Birmingham, Alabama, and one of my customers was contacted by Quick Comp Support with two support techs on the line, but these guys actually identified themselves as being from Microsoft.  They told him they had been monitoring his computer traffic on line and that he had some serious problems that could affect others, as well as himself and that he might have viruses. 

These individuals had heavy accents, as though they might be from India.  Still, my customer did not think anything of it when they requested to be granted remote access to his computer, and believing they were from Microsoft, he permitted it.  He reported to me they showed him logs that were full of errors, including some marked in red as "critical" or "fatal".  They did this for quite some time, and it seemed everywhere they looked they found issues.

They told my customer they would fix him right up and he could purchase a package from them for the sum of $179.99, which would give him a 1-year warranty with "windows pack installer" and "Microsoft Security Essentials -- Lifetime".  They even left my customer a text file with a contact name (Wilson Francis, probably fake) and the phone number 888-217-1123.  They also offered two lesser packages where the Microsoft Security Essentials was good for three years for $124.99 and something they called "Instant" for $84.99.

At this point, my customer got suspicious because Quick Comp Support was asking for money, and he told them he needed to talk to his I.T. tech first, who was out of town.  They agreed to call him back the following Monday, which they never did.

I looked over his computer and determined these individuals has perpetrated quite a scam on my customer.  The errors they were showing him were nothing more than the typical user information thrown up by the Windows Event Viewer and were, essentially, meaningless to anyone but a tech.  They did not indicate any issues with his computer, and, in fact, I found his computer was working just fine with excellent performance and response.  Quick Comp Support had taken advantage of my customer's ignorance by putting information in front of him that looked bad, but was simply not -- it was merely totally out of context.  Many of the errors displayed were later automatically corrected by the computer, which is how it is supposed to work.

My customer already had antivirus software installed, so he didn't need it.  That was bad enough, but to charge him for "Three years" of Microsoft Security Essentials when it can be downloaded and installed with permanent support from Microsoft for free was the real rip-off they contemplated.  Two more scams.

The "Windows pack installer" they listed was something automatically included with Windows and updates the computer itself without the user even needing to intervene.  In fact, my customer's service pack and security updates were completely up-to-date!  Another scam.

Finally, I noted that an older version of Java had been installed on his computer with a date that corresponded to the call by Quick Comp.  My suspicion is that they put it there, but rather than take any chance that they had opened up a security hole into my customer's computer, I uninstalled Java and installed a known good copy of the most recent version.  If, indeed, Quick Comp Support did this, it would be a serious crime.

My recommendation to anyone getting a call offering computer support, especially if it purports to be from a large firm like Microsoft (who NEVER contacts customers randomly or for issues such as this), is to immediately terminate the call.  And certainly never allow anyone you don't know remote access to your computer.  If you have sensitive information stored there, this could be a direct line into your worst nightmare should your identity be stolen.  If you truly have computer issues, take it to someone locally or get a recommendation from someone you trust.  Or, if you have an I.T. person, call them first.  Quick Comp Support is a total scam and had I known what was going on, I could have stopped the process in its tracks and called these guys on their tricks.