Scammed by Non-Canon Support

[sttillman22]

While a support person was trying to fix my printer,he needed to get on my computer remotely. He told me I would need to pay $199.00 because my computer was really not updated. As he was remotely on my computer, and he told me I could walk away while he worked, I watched him go into my Amazon account, buy gift cards, go into my email, delete the Amazon confirmation and then try to go into my banking. I was locked out of my computer and his phone # was restricted. I could not stop him. He also later in the day tried to change my passwords for Amazon and my email as I received texts. When hge called me I asked why he bought a card and he said it was for licensing purposes. (I know, I was so surprised I didn't put 2 and 2 together right away). I now have a fight on my hands but I do have all his information when I call Canon this AM. BEWARE, do not use Canon ever!!!!!!

[jrhoffman75]

Thank you for this Stephen. This is the first scam report I have seen but there have been others where high fees have been requested. Perhaps a  permanent caution posting could be added to the start page. 

[Stephen]

That's why I created the canon.us/ijstart link - it's much less confusing, so whenever people come our way (on social media), we point them in that direction. But to have the inserts changed would have to come from Canon, Inc. in Japan, which would take some doing. 😞

[Eblanton81]

The exact same thing happened to my elderly mother this morning. She used the link in the QR code and this still happened. What should I tell her to do? 

[Danny]

We can understand your concern, Eblanton81.  We recommend that your mother register her gear as part of her MyCanon account and she can use that anytime she wants to access all of her official support options from Canon USA.  Hope this helps!

[DebH]

HI and hope you can help. Please read this whole thing. The same thing happened to me about a year ago. Fortunately, they weren't able to go into my amazon account.The manual you are showing is the same one I have that came with the printer. I was pretty sure I put the same website shown here in the browser, but it's possible I clicked on a similar one that appeared. I think I called a support number on the site( or was given a number and then was connected with another number( I can't remember exactly how). I ended up with a company called (something like): A1software solutions LLC. Does that sound familiar? I feel like an idiot allowing them to go on my computer, but I desperately needed to print something( so stupid). Recently, I tried to re-connect my printer to my router manually and  made a mistake that rest something, causing the printer to not completely communicate with my laptop. I had applcare screen-share just to confirm that I added the printer again properly, but they said I would need to call the tech support co. again for that. Coincidentally, the tech support company called me later the same week. They said they hadn't heard from me since they fixed my printer last year and informed me I had another year left of the 2 years I paid for, did I need help with anything else? I declined. The problem is, I never actually registered my printer with Canon when I bought it and the warranty would have expired by now anyway. All I want is Canon to provide me with a list of tech support numbers that have been verified as legitimate. I can't even connect to a support line because I didn't register my printer. I feel outraged that I cannot access a single phone support line to help me. I'm getting the feeling that Canon has no interest in providing it's customers with help in the hopes they'll give up and buy a brand new device. Were you able to eventually find legitimate tech help who could remedy the the changes made to your printer and the security risk to your computer and accounts? I'm at my wit's end.Thanks

[Stephen]

If you put that address into a search bar or mistype it, it's very easy to get to a scam site. Scammers know that, too, and we absolutely hate it. 😠

[Tintype_18]

Have you contacted your credit card holder? I had three $100 ATM transactions several years ago. It was suspicious as they were in one city where I have never been. The card holder called to confirm and took care of it.

[Tintype_18]

Why would Canon upgrade you computer? That is a job for computer services as Staples (I use them) or Geek Squad.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

No one wants to hear this.  No one wants to be a victim.  This doesn't happen unless you mistype the information.  The manual is not wrong.  If you enter the URL on the page, it takes you to the ij.start page on Canon's website.  

Here is the mistake.  When you are provided a URL, you should type that into the address bar at the very top of the browser.  Not a search bar, but the actual address bar at the very top of the browser.  

When you start typing into the search bar, the browser begins a query and predictively tries to anticipate what you are searching for or the site you want to visit.  Search providers allow people or companies to pay money so their search results appear higher in the list of results.

Do a search and see what happens.  Notice many of the results at the top of your search will say "sponsored". Actually people have paid for this so you will see their ad, site or product first.  Scammers do this to. 

Canon has no responsibility or control of this.  You can thank Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc for it.  They take the money and if you want your ad or site to appear high in the list of results all you have to do is pay for it.  

The ultimate responsibility is your own.  The site you decide to visit, what you click, the information you provide and the access you grant someone.  No one would knowingly give a stranger the keys to their home, car, or credit card information.  These are criminals hoping to trick you.

Canon does everything it can to make it as easy as possible, but it's up to you to have looked both ways before stepping off the curb.  Computers are great tools.  They need to be used responsibly.  

We all hate when this happens, but it's not Canon's fault and is beyond their control.  Be safe out there. 

[DebH]

Thank you for your reply. So at this point, now that the mistake was made which disqualifies me for Canon support, I'm wondering if someone in the community has a suggestion. The company I paid had not been reported to the better Business Bureau, there were no further withdrawals or tampering of accounts to my knowledge over the past year, though I had contacted my bank right away and had a new debit card issued, but I won't risk using them again. The printer had been working until I installed Mac os Monterey a month ago. Applecare helped me re-connect the printer which seemed to finally work, but the pages kept coming out blank no matter what( the new ink cartridges were inserted correctly).  I guess the only real option is to buy anotherprinter. I'm sorry for taking out my frustration on Canon.