Brother support line scam raises concerns

March 5, 2018

By Recycler Magazine

The OEM’s tech support phone line has reportedly been compromised by online scammers.

Brother is facing questions after a series of incidents in which the tech support phone number provided by the OEM has allegedly turned out to be a scam. The hoax number, which is reportedly not connected to the company, attempts to make money from the caller.

Arkansas Online reports that one of its readers phoned the number provided on Brother’s printer website, and was told by the voice on the other end that the call centre needed to take control of his computer to fix the problematic “stuck” and “sleeping” files on it. The reader was also informed that he would need to pay nearly $300 for a firewall – which he declined.

“They told there was no way that I would get the printer to work without their firewall,” the reader said, although a YouTube tutorial eventually allowed him to.

According to Arkansas Online, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred via Brother’s website. After contacting the OEM about the “bad situation”, it was told that “they were aware of everything and were working on it.”

It offers the advice to others, that “if it seems fishy, it probably is.”