Tech Support Search Scams Growing
WARNING: It has come to our attention that companies are deceptively promoting PC Matic “Support” via Google & Bing ads (like the one below). The company behind the majority of these ads -iYogi – is in NO way associated with PC Matic or PC Pitstop and is exploiting ‘loopholes’ in search engine advertising policy.
Consumers who respond to these ads are charged a minimum of $149.99 – for answers otherwise available for free in basic online documentation or via official PC Matic support.
PC Pitstop has repeatedly petitioned Google and Microsoft to have these ads removed.
Google’s response:
“Per our Reseller and Informational Site policy within Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, Canada, and Ireland we permit a trademarked term to be used in the ad text of ads that appear to be submitted by resellers, informational sites, the makers or resellers of components or parts for the goods and services related to the trademark term, or compatible components or parts for the goods and services related to the trademark term.”
Other Coverage of this Issue:
Last year, the FTC cracked down on similar scams. This very detailed account was posted last May on ArsTechnica:
Inside the US government’s war on tech support scammers | Nate Anderson – May 18, 2014
The tactic reached huge numbers of people. One PCCare247 ad account with Google produced 71.7 million impressions; another generated 12.4 million more. According to records obtained by the FTC, these combined campaigns generated 1.5 million clicks—a 1.8 percent clickthrough rate. Rather than cold-calling people—a preferred tactic of many tech support scammers—PCCare247 instead placed its ads and waited for the calls for help to roll in.
Why you should never Google tech-support numbers | Rick Broida | February 9, 2015
Official PC Matic Support
Official support for PC Matic and PC Pitstop products is always Free and is only available via our live technicians, 7 days a week on pcmatic.com/cs.
PC Matic User Help
======================
PC Matic Help Desk
http://pcpitstop.com/store/service.asp
PC Matic Online Support Forum
http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?/forum/29-pc-pitstops-paid-products/
======================
PC Matic User Manual
Download PDF Version Here
Flip Through Online Version Here
======================
