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]

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@sttillman22 wrote:

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!!!!!!

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I am 100% sure that you were not on a legitimate Canon website.

[Stephen]

It sounds like you weren't speaking with Canon Support. There are a lot of fake support (scam) sites out there.

Canon Support is only $20 for out-of-warranty help, and our team is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 9pm (ET). The only way to get help from Canon USA for most of our products is to log into your My Canon Account at https://canon.us/account, which redirects to https://myprofile.americas.canon.com/us/signin and register your product before you call. Once you've registered, the system will let you know if you're eligible for free phone support. Our agents do not have access to your personal information. All phone and online interactions are recorded.

Our phone number is 1-800-OK-CANON (800-652-2666). If you have a printer product, your product must be registered to your My Canon Account before calling, or our phone system will not let you speak with an agent. 

[shadowsports]

@sttillman22,

Greetings.  We are sorry, but as the others stated, you were not speaking  or dealing with Canon.  We understand this is not easy to accept, but you were the victim of a support scam.  Since you provided personal information, CC info, and access to your Amazon account, I would encourage you to have a new card issued and change any important passwords.  You should also have a qualified IT person check your PC for malware or signs of it being compromised.  Scripts which install software can be run without your knowledge.  You are not the first person this has happened to and you won't be the last.  This was NOT Canon Support and I am sorry this happened to you.  Please be more cautious about these types of things moving forward.  

[sttillman22]

Thank you all. I now realize I was scammed. The unfortunate thing is that I followed the directions/web site in my printer manual.

[jrhoffman75]

Can you post a screenshot of that section in the manual?

[sttillman22]

[Stephen]

That is the site; however, you have to realize it's https://ij.start.canon it doesn't end in .com or anything else. 

The site looks like this:

There is NO support from that page whatsoever. 

[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. 😞