Better Business Bureau: Tech support scams are a serious danger

The Better Business Bureau warns that tech support scams can be a serious hazard to personal security and finance. Today the scam is commonly known as the "Microsoft Scam", and since last year there has been a major increase in scam activity.

The original approach by scammers was to place calls posing as a "tech support specialist", but the BBB claims that now scammers are using pop-ups and web links claiming that the user's computer has been hacked, then providing a phone number for "tech support". Then the "tech support specialist" provides a solution to the problem, usually costing hundreds and thousands of dollars.