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This is TeamViewer's official safety site which will provide you with information about scams and important security topics.

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A scam is a serious issue.

There are people whose intentions are to use remote control software for malicious purposes. Individuals in countries all over the world receive unsolicited scam phone calls and pop-up ads from cyber criminals that falsely claim to be from a reputable company. In most cases, these scammers try to get money.

At TeamViewer, we want to help you to be prepared for any potential scam attacks. We can’t guarantee that a scam won’t happen, and TeamViewer isn’t liable for any scams that occur through third parties, but we think it is important to raise awareness of this topic and to provide information that helps each other. Let’s work together to make everyone more secure.

Three Important Facts to Keep in Mind

Scams are real!
Scams aren’t something that only happen to other people. Every day scammers catch hundreds of people off-guard, making scams the biggest cyberattack challenge after ransomware. Your greatest defense against an attack is to be prepared, and encourage your family, friends and colleagues to also be aware that they can be targets too. Keep in mind: scams can happen to any of us.

Scammers use remote control software
You’ll never see a scammer face to face, knocking on your door. The anonymous nature of scams is what makes them such a threat. Using the telephone and remote-control software, attackers can “break into” your electronic devices — computers, tablets, phones — and gain access to your personal information, including passwords, bank account numbers and PINs.

It’s possible to protect yourself!
The good news is that you don’t have to be a victim of a scam. Being aware that scams happen means you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself. We’re here to help you by sharing our knowledge and expertise, so that you can avoid becoming a victim.

Since telephone scams for technical support first appeared, the frequency of these attacks is becoming greater each year.

The best way to protect yourself from a scam attack is to be aware of how they work and recognize a scam attempt early. Stop the scam and stay safe.

Telephone scams are just one of a number of different strategies to scam victims. Both individuals and companies can become victim to a scam attack.

In most scam attacks, the scammers try to steal money. They use different techniques, such as requesting a bank transfer, asking for credit card information, or the purchase of gift cards.

Never call the number of a support company written in a pop-up or advertisement shown on your computer. Instead, call a local support company or a person you trust when you need assistance with your computer.

Never give out any credit card or bank account information, nor gift card redemption numbers, to anyone on the phone.

Telephone scams have become a multimillion dollar industry over the past few years, and the measures being used to trick people are versatile and aggressive.

The social engineering tactics used in a telephone scams cannot be stopped by security software. It is important to raise awareness of this topic so that potential victims can prevent these attacks from happening.

Working Together to Protect Your Assets

TeamViewer takes scam attacks seriously. Together with our partners we’re working to reduce the impact of scams by raising awareness and building even more effective measures to make it extremely difficult for scammers to trick people. We would like to invite you to join us in our efforts by raising your awareness of scams, educating your family and protecting your devices, as much as possible, against attacks.

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How to Protect Yourself

Working together with you to make things more secure

How do I recognize a scam?
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How do I protect my family?
How do I set up TeamViewer more securely?
How do I stop a scam?
What should I do if I am scammed?

It is difficult to spot a scam and that’s what makes them such devious threats. Scammers use a variety of approaches — an unexpected refund offer, a cold call for PC support assistance, or an unexpected phone call from a stranger introduced as an old friend or acquaintance. All of these should be considered suspicious.

The person on the phone is usually pushy and will try to build a climate of trust to get the victim to do something they don’t want to do. If you have the feeling that something isn’t right, or it sounds too good to be true, hang up the phone and shut down your computer, in order to close TeamViewer and any other software you may have running.

Keep in mind the fact that reputable organizations are happy to share their information, and often prefer written correspondence with their customers.

When you receive a call claiming to be from an organization, take the upper hand by asking the caller for their name, company, and phone number. Next, inform them that you will call them back, and hang up the call. If the caller refuses to share their information, or becomes aggressive, hang up.

Once you have ended the call, search the company’s website to verify the information – especially the caller’s phone number. Alternatively, call the number that you see listed on the company’s website, or on your last invoice, and ask them to verify that the call you received was legitimate.

Think of yourself as the family IT person, or assign this role to another qualified person in the family. Take the time to explain to your family members what can be done to prevent them from being victims of a scam call. You may have to do this a few times just to be sure they’re protected.

You can demonstrate how to securely make online payments, update subscriptions and more, using TeamViewer as an example. Using the TeamViewer Whitelist feature, you can also help your family members configure their TeamViewer to restrict the people who can assist them and limit their vulnerability to attack.

TeamViewer has a variety of features to increase your security even more. The TeamViewer Whitelist feature enables you to specify exactly who can access a computer. You should also make sure each account has its own distinct password and uses TeamViewer’s Two-Factor Authentication. As the family IT person, you can use the Easy Access feature for remote devices to access specific accounts without any password requests.

For more detailed information about using TeamViewer for bulletproof tech support, see this article.

You can stop a scam call in two easy steps:

1. Simply hang up the phone

2. Turn your computer off, if you aren’t sure how to close any software programs that are running.

The first thing you should do is contact your bank or credit card institutions to verify if any transactions have been made or any financial information has been compromised (bank account numbers, PINs, etc.). If a payment was done via PayPal, immediately get in contact with PayPal to rectify the issue and in most cases, receive a refund.

We also recommend contacting your local law enforcement agency to let them know of the attack, so they can be on the look-out for similar scams. To ensure your PC has not been compromised, you should have it checked by a local IT support company or a person you can trust.

Report a Scam

TeamViewer wants to beat scammers and protect your privacy.

If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be from a well-known company, who wanted to use TeamViewer to access your computer, and you felt it was a scam, we would appreciate your help in stopping these fraudsters. Please use the form below to report all information about your experience with them.

This information will assist TeamViewer in our investigations. The information you provide will be treated according to German privacy law and the TeamViewer Privacy Policy. Your data will NOT be used to contact you for general marketing purposes.

Reporting a scam will help us and authorities track this kind of fraud and work against it. However, this does not necessarily mean that we or the police can solve your individual case. Also, we are not able to replace or cover any losses you may incurred due to fraudulent activity.