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Heard a customer say 'my computer is slow' and actually listened this time
So this lady came in yesterday with an old Dell laptop complaining it was slow. Usually I just run malwarebytes and call it a day. But she mentioned she got a popup from her 'antivirus' asking for $50. I looked at her browser and there were like 12 taskbar toolbars installed. Turns out she had been clicking 'accept all' on every website for months. I spent an hour cleaning it and showed her how to decline cookies. She was so happy she tipped me $20. Made me realize I should ask more questions instead of assuming I know the problem. Has anyone else had a customer's simple description hide a much bigger issue?
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smith.matthew25d ago
...and what REALLY gets me about this story is nobody's brought up how these popups and toolbars are basically TARGETED at people who aren't tech savvy. Like that "antivirus" popup she got asking for $50, that's not random. Those scammers specifically go after older folks and people who just want their computer to work without all the technical mumbo jumbo. She probably thought she was being responsible by clicking it. I've seen the same thing happen with fake "your computer has 3 viruses" alerts that look EXACTLY like Windows notifications. The real problem isn't just that we assume we know the issue, it's that the entire system is designed to trick people who don't speak the language of technology.
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blair63024d ago
Last week my neighbor called me over because her laptop was screaming at her with a red "WARNING" alert that said she had 47 viruses and needed to pay $39.99 immediately, and she was about to pull out her credit card. She's 72 and just wants to email her grandkids, so of course she thought clicking that popup was the right move. @smith.matthew you hit it exactly right these scammers build their whole racket on people who weren't raised with computers.
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