The awful, fast-growing tech scams fleecing the elderly out of millions

The U.S. attorney general has vowed an “all-out attack” on elderly internet fraud, but experts say the crackdown is more like a game of whack-a-mole.

The phone rings, and the person on the line claims to be calling from a trustworthy tech company like Microsoft or Apple. There’s a problem with your computer, he says–perhaps it’s infected with viruses or infiltrated by hackers–but he’s happy to work with you to clean things up for a fee.

If you ever get such a call, it’s a scam, and experts say you should simply hang up. Tech companies simply won’t call you to offer services to fix your computer, nor will they pop up messages in your web browser offering help eradicating malware or a digital tune-up.

But in 2018 alone, people reported losing $55 million to tech support scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and people age 60 and older were about five times more likely to report losing money to such fraudsters. Such scams are now considered among the fastest growing internet-based frauds, according to the FBI, which reported a 161% increase in victims’ monetary losses over 2017.

And those are just the victims who reported the fraud to the FTC, the FBI, and partner organizations: It’s likely many targeted by scams didn’t report out of embarrassment, quietly reversed fraudulent charges with their credit card companies, or have yet to realize they’ve been defrauded.

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Solving the Top Issues MSP IT Support Teams Face

For an MSP, choosing the right technical partner can enhance your success and improve business continuity.

It’s easy to lose sight of how big and agonizing a decision it is for organizations when selecting a managed service provider. It’s one of the most profound choices that a modern business will make as it hands management and security of IT networks and systems to a third party. So, as an MSP yourself, how do you inspire confidence in potential clients and maintain the trust of your existing ones? In an already crowded market, the answer has to be excellent customer service backed by bulletproof IT system reliability — the very things that your own clients strive for, and the exact reason they turn to you for support. It also means selecting a technical partner that is able to enhance your offering and understands your long-term business goals. One you can depend on in the same way your clients rely on you.

But MSPs often struggle in exactly the same ways as their clients when it comes to choosing the right solutions partner, and as a result, their IT teams face the same uphill struggle when prioritizing support-related queries and coping with day-to-day systems management. This article looks at a few of the most common day-to-day challenges encountered by IT teams within MSPs and explores some potential solutions.


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How big data is improving remote IT support

Over the past decade, the amount of information companies collect has grown exponentially – whether it is customer viewing habits, purchasing patterns or business performance. Modern businesses are used to the process of aggregating data from multiple sources and turning it into actionable insights, either through in-house business intelligence applications or cloud-based tools. Today, there are very few companies that don't have some kind of business intelligence capabilities. In fact, big data has become so pervasive that most business decisions today are expected to be data driven, or at the very least data informed.

However, you only need to look at the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal to realize that this desire for data, in some areas, has gone too far. It seems as though everything we do online today is tracked, stored and monitored via the devices we use and the apps we download. Many people see this as an infringement of their privacy and are pressing for more to be done to protect our data. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the tightening of US Data Regulations is just the start.

Ironically, however, one area where businesses are under-utilizing big data is remote IT support, even though there is a lot to gain from it and very little downside. I say "ironically", because data management, security and compliance have long been a mainstay of IT's remit, but it's only recently that they are starting to be able to use big data for themselves to improve services and support.

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Mechdyne Brings Personalized Service, Committed IT Professionals to Enterprise Mobile Device Support

For organizations that need to relieve their IT teams of what may be additional pressure to support mobile devices, Mechdyne Corporation’s IT Services subsidiary, ABS Associates Inc., has launched a 24/7 help desk service focused on mobile device implementation and support.

“We streamline large-scale deployments so that organizations can focus on their business objectives instead of routine mobile device support,” said Brian Nunziato, Manager, I.T. and Data Analytics at Mechdyne. “When it comes to device configuration, end-user training, and troubleshooting issues, our highly trained team reduces down-time and helps make our clients’ workforce more productive.”

With Mechdyne’s all-inclusive Mobile Device Support, set up time and end-user training for both Android and iOS devices can be cut in half, reduced from an average of 90 minutes to just 45 minutes or less. Leveraging Mechdyne’s remote control software, a technician with user permission can take control of the mobile device and perform set up directly. This ensures much greater speed and reliability than walking through the steps for the end-user to perform.

The company’s U.S.-based, Level 2 support technicians have experience working with wireless carrier management portals, including device ordering. They bring extensive expertise in remote viewing and configuration, assigning and resetting passwords, and configuration of corporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, business applications and VPNs.

One hundred percent located in the U.S., Mechdyne IT support technicians work with all the leading MDM solutions for enforcement of corporate security policies including Microsoft InTune, IBM MaaS360 and VMWare AirWatch. With device purchase request forms and incident management ticket tracking based on ITIL best practices, they bring a highly professional approach to provisioning and configuring devices to support business rules, security, and applications.

A large healthcare industry client recently added Mechdyne’s mobile device support to its existing service desk contract. With a workforce that is increasingly reliant on smartphones, outsourcing mobile device management to Mechdyne alleviated an ‘IT headache’ and brought significant efficiencies that allowed its internal IT team to focus on more strategic issues. They reported that the new mobile device support service dramatically alleviates a previous pain point and brings significant efficiencies to make their internal team more productive.



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Why Tech Support is Crucial to the Overall User Experience

Post summary:

• What is tech support?
• Tech support vs customer support
• 7 tips for better tech support
• When your customers run into a problem with your product, they contact your support team.

But, not just regular support.

For “IT” related issues, they contact tech support.

Whether the problem is a “user” error, a bug or technical issue, it doesn’t matter to them, they just want it solved so they can continue with their workload.

If they can’t log in to your product? They contact tech support.

A feature or module isn’t working as it normally does? They contact tech support.

Therefore, any questions relating to the product (how to install it, how to configure, etc.) all need to be answered by technical expertise in order for your customers to get the best value out of your product.

If you don’t have a tech support team in place to answer these questions, then customers will eventually stop using your product. And this leads to higher churn rates.

Put simply, if you run a product based business, then technical support is crucial to your overall success.

Yet, there’s a challenge with tech support.

It’s expensive!

In fact, it’s 100x more expensive than self-service channels.

Each time you fail to solve a tech support question, you’re potentially throwing money away.

Worse of all, you risk losing customers.

This becomes even more significant if you run a subscription-based business where one customer can subscribe to tens or even hundreds of user licenses. Failing to deliver a good experience here can be very costly.

That’s why it’s essential to provide high quality tech support.

To help you and your team, we’ve created the ultimate guide to tech support.

In this guide, we’ll outline what tech support is, why you should care about it, and how it works – as well as hints and tips to help your business improve on the quality of tech support you provide.

Let’s dive right in!

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IT Support Basics: Back to the Basics in IT Support

IT support is a business function of all IT Departments, which ensures that the computer systems of that company are monitored and maintained. This could either be done by an internal IT Department or a third party managed service provider. An IT support managed service provider ensures that the networks of a business are operating according to the standards of the company.

The basic functions of an IT support team are:

• Installing computer software
• Configuring systems
• Monitoring systems to ensure that run as they should
• Maintaining networks and systems
• Replace parts
• Troubleshoot systems
• Diagnose problems and solve them
• Provide technical support and advice
• Set up user accounts
• Test, evaluate and upgrade systems to new technology
• Conduct safety checks

The above list is indicates just some of the services to expect from your IT support team. Frequently, companies do not have the bandwidth or resources to support all of their IT needs. As a result they will seek to outsource some or all of their responsibilities to an IT service provider. Traditionally, a contracted IT company in Boston will simply work when needed - clients will contact the vendor to perform necessary maintenance, including system updates, hardware repair, security checks, etc. With the help of the service provider, IT services can be made proactive instead of reactive. 

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10 signs you may not be cut out for a support tech job

The role of support tech is ideal for some people—but it might not be the best choice for others. This list will help you determine which camp you fall in. 

So you want to be a computer support technician. Or perhaps you are one already, but you can't decide whether you're just having a bad week or you're really not cut out for the job. What does it take to be an effective support tech? Is this a career at which you can excel and be happy? The ability to do well in any job and to enjoy it depends to a certain extent upon our personalities, skills, and attitudes. But how can you tell if being a support tech is right for you? Consider the following indications that you might be on the wrong track. If they don't apply to you, the list of resources at the end of the article can help you down this career path.

Check out this free ebook for a look at other IT job roles to help you decide if they're a good fit for you.

1: You don't respect other techs

Start by examining your attitude toward support techs. When you have to call your ISP or other service provider, do you treat the techs with respect or do you assume they're all idiots reading flip charts? If you don't respect the role of the support tech, regardless of how well a particular tech performs, you probably shouldn't be one, as you won't value yourself or what you do.

SEE: Telephone interview cheat sheet: Support technician (Tech Pro Research)

2: You view the job only as a stepping stone

How do you see the job as support tech? Is it an end in itself or merely a stepping stone to something "better"? Unfortunately, in many organizations, the support tech job is regarded as the lowest rung of the IT ladder, an entry-level position to be filled by people with little or no proven experience who will be promoted out of the spot at the earliest opportunity.

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