Technical support scam
type of fraud and confidence trick
A technical support scam, or tech support scam, is a type of scam in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate technical support service for computing devices connected to the Internet. The scam may be intimated by a cold telephone call from the thief to the victim, or victims may contact scammers in response to a fake pop-up resembling an error message, or via fake "help lines" advertised on websites operated by the scammers.
Technical support scammers use social engineering and a variety of confidence tricks to persuade their victim of the presence of problems on their computer or mobile device, such as a malware infection, when there are no issues with the victim's device. They frequently take full control of the victim's computer with remote control software.
The scammer will then persuade the victim to pay to fix the fictitious "problems" that they claim to have found. Payment is made to the scammer via gift cards or cryptocurrency, which are hard to trace and have few consumer protections in place. There is risk of potentially higher losses to thieves who persuade victims to connect, with password and two-factor authentication if relevant, to online banking, or to transfer large sums to a "safe account" to "protect it from hackers accessing their computer". Technical support scams started no later than 2008.
A 2017 study of technical support scams found that of the IPs that could be geolocated, 85% could be traced to locations in India, 7% to locations in the United States and 3% to locations in Costa Rica. Research into tech support scams suggests that millennials and Gen Z have the highest exposure to such scams; however, it is thought that older people are more likely to fall for these scams and lose money to them.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Technical support scam” is type of fraud and confidence trick. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Technical, support and scam, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “type of fraud and confidence trick” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16738649. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008 and 2017.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Technical support scam”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Technical support scam primary sources, Technical support scam archive and Technical research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Technical support scam”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Technical support scam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.