Printer reboot/support scam.

[WLDowden2]

On Tuesday 12/5/23 I sought help on official Canon chat line to help reconnect my image class printer to all my Mac mobile devices. They had all stopped connecting after the most recent upgrade to my Apple devices. After description of problem to chat person I was instructed to hold for support via phone call to walk me through the reconnection. This seemed perfectly plausible. After I was finished with my interaction with ASOFTWARE SUPPORT SERVICES LLC , the mobile devices still did not connect and I had been bilked of 1300.00..   I think highly of Canon products and suppressed all the red flags ,because , I was on a direct thread with Canon.  Was forced to close all devices for 36-48h until forensics completed verifying safe to use. Last 3 days spent trying to recover the fraudulently obtained funds to no avail.  The fix was a simple update of printer firmware.  Looking for advice from Canon or anyone experienced in recovering funds in this type of scam. I do have all the exact times , purpose and people involved in this interaction , both initial and in follow-up. Thanks and I hope this doesn’t violate forum etiquette..

[SamanthaW]

Our best advice is to talk to your bank and if needed, contact local authorities in your area! As for official Canon USA support let us give you our info so this doesn't happen again! 

Canon USA:
1-800-OK-CANON (1-800-652-2666)

usa.canon.com

And you can also access your official My Canon Account at canon.us/account

[WLDowden2]

Sam,    How did Canon manage to hand me off to a support firm that surely can not be an approved business?  The people on the Canon chat line had me stay on the chat line until the call came through.  Although my browser history showed I was initially on the proper Canon site , I assumed I had made an error somewhere until I got the Canon survey today.  Canon must make sure NO ONE is sent to that business , and Canon should be directly, actively helping to recover my scammed funds.  You are in possession of my email and phone number and I would encourage Canon to contact me for info which would help protect future Canon product owners. 

[Stephen]

We don't do that. Whoever you think you were chatting with was not us. There are a LOT of sites on the Internet that pretend to be official Canon support sites. The only official support sites for support for Canon USA are https://usa.canon.com and https://canon.us/account, which will re-direct you to log into your Canon Account at https://myprofile.americas.canon.com/us/signin. Our support is in-house by Canon employees. Period. 

Based on the email address associated with your Canon Community account, I don't see that you have any products registered with your Canon Account. The phone number associated with your Canon Account doesn't pull up in our Tech Support system, which tells me that they didn't get a call from you (unless it was from a different number from the one on your Canon Account). I also did an email search in the support system, which didn't bring anything up. 

So, as Samantha suggested, we recommend contacting your Bank first - to let them know that you didn't authorize the charge.

Second, we highly suggest contacting actual Canon USA support to get your printer operating as it should. OUR phone number is 1-800-OK-CANON (800-652-2666) from 9am to 8pm (ET), Monday through Friday.

[DPORWOLL]

Hi.

I contacted the number on the "Canon" website posted as a support phone number and it was a scam, too! Unfortunately, it wasn't until he had been in my computer for about 20 minutes that I realized it was a scam! What steps do you suggest I take to protect my computer? Also, did you ever get a legit Canon support number to contact for help?

Thanks!

Deb

[jrhoffman75]

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@DPORWOLL wrote:

Hi.

I contacted the number on the "Canon" website posted as a support phone number and it was a scam, too! Unfortunately, it wasn't until he had been in my computer for about 20 minutes that I realized it was a scam! What steps do you suggest I take to protect my computer? Also, did you ever get a legit Canon support number to contact for help?

Thanks!

Deb

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Post the exact URL and phone number you contacted. 

The scam sites are clever and if you just google “Canon support” the early posts are often not official Canon sites. 

[normadel]

What is the URL of the "Canon website" you started at? Where/how did you find this site?

You were deceived right from the start.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

We are all very sorry this happened but you were not talking to Canon USA.  I want to be very clear on this. The person or parties you initiated contact with was not Canon.  You may think you did, but unfortunately that's not the case.

We see posts like this from time to time, and unfortunately end up telling folks that they weren't talking to who they thought they were. 

How you got connected with these people, I cannot say.  You might have mistyped the support URL, or clicked on a fraudulent link.  

The internet is full of bad people and unfortunately you found one of them.  Remember however, It is your responsibility to verify the identity of the party you're dealing with.  This applies to any internet-based interaction.  There's just no way around this.

We are all very sorry this happened.  Information on how to contact official Canon Support was provided above.  If you have contacted another party and provided financial information to them or granted them access to your computer, You should contact your financial institution and have somebody qualified to perform a forensic analysis of your computer to ensure it has not been compromised.  

The Canon Community is a user to user forum.  Here you can receive help from fellow Canon enthusiasts.  We can also help you get in touch with Canon Support if you need warranty or additional assistance that cannot be provided here.  

Again, we are sorry this happened.  In the future, please be careful and ensure you have validated a person or party's identity before agreeing to work with them.