Call from "Quickbooks Support Team" - Fraud?

Yea, like the guy from Microsoft that has detected a problem with my Windows. 

I do use a PC, but often say On my Mac?  Other times I just put the phone on mute and just set it down.  I think they usually get a ways into their script before they realize they're no longer talking to anyone.  Figure it keeps them from bothering at least one or two other people during the time they gabbing to themselves.

And a serious note for anyone reading this that doesn't already know....   ANY time you get a call from someone and you're not sure why.  HANG UP!  Then go get the number from your statement back of your card or whatever and call the REAL number and ask if they needed to talk to you.  Bet the only time it might be real is your Credit Card Fraud department.  And they'll tell you they have no problem with you hanging up on them can calling back on your own.  (Doubt you get points, but it shows them you're not frivolous with your info.)

Hi @Posie.

Thank you for reaching out to the Community about this. 

I'll be happy to help clear up if that was a scam call.

From what you described, it sounds like that was a scam phone call. Good job not providing any personal information. 

Intuit may occasionally do outbound calls. If you receive one of these calls, you shouldn't be asked for any personal information. 

@Pete_Mc provided some great information about what to do in these situations.

The proper contact number can be found, here.

Please remember, I'm always here for any other questions or concerns so don't hesitate to reach out.

Twice this week, my phone caller ID showed I was calling from my own number to my own number and the name was there, too. Yes, they are scams.

I've never seen my number, but I ALWAYS see area code and exchange.

My business land line run through a FAX machine and quite honestly I only use it for outgoing calls and never get clients (new or old) calling in on it.  So when I see one of those numbers I really know is bogus, I just hit the Answer on the FAX machine.  If it's a large SPAM Call Center I'm just hoping their software drops my number thinking it's a dedicated FAX line.  [Please don't burst my bubble...]

I just received a call from "Intuit Pro" with the number [removed] on the caller ID.  The guy (Indian accent but that doesn't mean anything) claimed he was calling about a "404 error".  I cut him off and hung up.  I then contacted the real Intuit support folks who confirmed that this was a scam.

I guess there are enough gullible people out there to make these scams worthwhile.   Stay vigilant!

Pete O.

Thanks for joining this conversation, @PeteO.

I appreciate you sharing this incident here in the Community. This information will set as an early warning for other QuickBooks users.

To avoid these scam phone calls, we highly recommend not including any private information such as personal/business phone numbers and personal/business email addresses when posting here in the Community.

Just in case, here is the QuickBooks Offical Contact Us link.

That's it! Thanks for being a part of our QuickBooks family. Should you have any other concerns, don't hesitate to post again or leave a comment below. Take care and have a good one.

I would like to share a similar situation that happened to me yesterday.  I am brand new to QB.  In frustration with learning the new product, I posted a question regarding importing data into QB Desktop for Mac.  I never put any personal information in my post - just a question about more information being available for using a standard menu step IMPORT.  Within 20 minutes of my posting, I received a call from someone who was from Quickbooks Pro Advisors Help.  He called the number on my registration with QB - he knew what problems I was having with QB - said that they represent QB in helping companies set up their data.  Here is the strange thing, he said he could help me by converting my previous data into QB files.

He then asked to use logmein to access my computer.  At the time, I was unable to work on this.  He simply told me to call him back at X phone number and that they would need 45 minutes to get me up and running. He carried on about it being a recorded line, etc

Out of frustration not receiving any other credible information on my question,  I googled the 800 number and it referenced their site.  I weighed the coincidence of a random call from a scammer with the fact that I just posted something and they called me at the correct phone number asking for the correct person 20 minutes after I posted something.  

I thought - this is AWESOME service.  I am on my way to creating my QB experience.  Regrettably, I called them back, allowed them to sign into my computer for about 10 minutes, showed them a little of what I was needing to have explained and then it happened - he asked me to show him the application I am using to accept payments from my customers.  then the bells started going off - the logo they use on their site is a little different from the real QB.  They were not as certain as to how to answer my questions - I got scammed and someone has access to my computer.

I shut down the connection and restarted my computer.

What I am trying to figure out is WHO is this Quickbooks Pro Advisors Help, HOW did they get my number to call, and is this something that COULD typically happen?  A legitimate QB Pro Advisor trying to help a newbie?  They never asked me for a payment, so this could be innocent enough on their part - understand my needs and offer me help that would result in a consultation fee.

I called intuit afterward, and they were not sure.

Anyone have a little advice as to whether I should be changing all of my Credit card numbers or re-initializing my computer right now?  Thanks.

Hello corkykane,

QuickBooks ProAdvisors are certified accountants that can guide you make better decisions for your business. However, you'll still need to look for one through our website for them to help.

Since you've mentioned that there were no payments involved, I recommend consulting an IT guy to check your computer system. It would be better to check if there are any programs or malicious software installed to ensure any sensitive information will be safe.

If you need assistance from our support, please ensure the phone number is from us. I'm adding the link I recommend below for your reference:

https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact#qbdt-select

Please reach out to me here should you need any additional assistance. The Community is here to serve you.

@kane_2

I just parsed your Username here into a first and last name and Googled it. Is that You that is coming up in the search results? If so, see how easy it is to Pretend to be from Intuit?

Pro Advisors do not have access to the Intuit Customer database; Support would not call you like that, either.

So, yes, I would be worried and take whatever precautions would be necessary to lock the doors behind them, now. I cannot tell you about changing credit card or account numbers, etc, because only you know what they saw, had access to, might have Copied or Cloned, etc.

Our company recently had something similar happen. We received a call from a man named James claiming to be from QuickBooks. He made it seem like a charge was trying to go through and wouldn't so maybe something was wrong with the card. This wasn't alarming to me because we had recently changed credit cards and I have still been changing our payment information for different companies. I logged into our account but gave him no information. I saw that the card had already been updated. I clicked save again anyway and it said that it would take 15 minutes for it to be processed. He said he would call back in 15 minutes. That was the first time I thought something was odd. In the 15 minutes I went and checked our payments from QuickBooks and we had already paid for our annual membership and our software is up to date. He was been trying to call for the last 3 days and we are not taking his calls. Does anyone have any advice?

"He was been trying to call for the last 3 days and we are not taking his calls. Does anyone have any advice?"

I have a listing of about a dozen numbers in the Blocked Calls list for our phone service. And they are making nomorobo available. If you enable this, it rings both your office and the nomorobo server once, and if the number is a known scammer, it stops ringing for you. It's like a virus checker for Phone calls.

I just got a call from someone named "James", Indian accent, who said my credit card was not processing for our QuickBooks automatic subscription. After trying to get it to "process" several times he asked for my credit card number so he could process it for us. I checked our credit card statement online and our payroll subscription processed just fine. I refused to give any information on our credit card as it seemed to be a scam. He left his number as [removed]

Hi there, jnzung.

Thank you for posting here in the Community. It's my priority to help ensure your personal information is secured.

I'm glad to know there's no credit card information shared over the phone regarding your QuickBooks subscription. We've received reports from other users concerning scammers impersonating tech support from genuine companies.

Any remote sessions performed during the call should be disconnected or uninstalled to secure your account.

In case you need to reach out to our Support Specialists, you can follow these steps:

1. Log into your QuickBooks account.
2. Click the Help option in the upper-right corner.
3. Enter necessary information and click Continue.
4. Choose a way to connect.
   
   

I want to ensure that you're able to secure your account, so please feel free to let me know how it goes. If you should have any questions, I'm just a click away.

They called me today after my post on here.

Claims to be from 'quickbooks' and as far as I know Intuit owns quickbooks. Clue #1.

barely could understand his English 

Said he could customize my quickbooks for me.... Ok buddy. 

Beware to all. pretty doubtful that Intuit even has your phone #'s from here.

I am having complete de javu!  I just got off the phone 20 minutes ago with the exact same ordeal!   Only difference is my scenario went a little farther than yours unfortunately. I posed a question on the QuickBooks community and literally within 2 minutes of my post I received a call.   I don’t recall the number but it was during business hours so I typically don’t refuse calls during that time regardless of the caller ID.  So once this man ( also with an Indian accent ) started telling me that due to my Gold Standard level subscription he was able to see reports of data corruption in my company file and needed to remotely access it to see the extent of the damage and hopefully fix my issue.  Now upon reflecting back my original issue was just trying to find out which report I needed to run for the info I was trying to find.  However, in my defense of ignorance, I instantly became nervous because like you I am self trained in quickbooks with minimal schooling in accounting.   Therefore I allowed him remote access for approx 45 mins in which he came back to tell me that my company file was 84% corrupt and they needed almost $3000 to fix it and if I didn’t it would get worse and eventually be detrimental to my whole company.  He said that because of this corruption none of my reports had valid numbers and when filing my taxes the information ( numbers ) I send my CPA won’t be correct either and I could face trouble with the IRS in result.  Thankfully I did not have $3000 just hanging out to give him.

Then he started to apply discounts for my “inconvenience” and started offering to go to bat for me with the billing department to attempt to get some of that refunded but he had to have the up front payment today.  Well he also blamed my issues on a e ent update from Windows so I decided that if that was the case then Microsoft can fix it or pay for it to be fixed and I ended that call (not without heavy cautions and suggestions not to from this person).  When I called Microsoft that’s when I realized what I had just subjected myself to. Oh and PS Microsoft is currently working on my issue for $69.98.  May all scammers contract the fleas from 1000 camels in their crotch and their arms be too short to scratch! 

This is not the experience that we want you to have, @PalmettoProCon.

Allow me to provide some contact resources that you can rely on to prevent fraudulent cases like this.

Fraudulent acts are widespread nowadays, and I appreciate you sharing this concern with us to raise awareness to other users in this forum. I want to inform you that Intuit will only initiate contact if you requested a call back from our Support about an issue in QuickBooks. It's great to hear that your reports are now working and the scammer hasn't taken anything from you.

For any QuickBooks Desktop concerns, you can reach us through the contact details found in this link: Contact the QuickBooks Desktop Customer Support Team.

Also, the Community always has your back and I'd be delighted to help should you have any QuickBooks related questions.

Please know that I'm just a reply away if you have any other questions about this concern or with QuickBooks. I'd be pleased to help you out. Take care and have a good one.

@PalmettoProCon assume ALL of your accounts and passwords HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED!!!!  And also KNOW your computer is infected with various spyware and probably key loggers.

During those 45 minutes the criminal was connected to your computer they were pulling down everything that they could and installing programs to access your computer.  If your User Names and Passwords are stored in anything but a PROVEN high encryption password safe, they will gain access if they found the file.  Go change EVERYTHING.  And YES, I AM TRYING TO INSTILL FEAR!

And just to confirm, YOU called Microsoft for the repairs and it was from a good number you know is really Microsoft.

As the techs are working, be sure to ask them how they find spyware and what kind of spyware do they look for.  If they do not reply with specific programs and searches they preform for key loggers, phone-home bots, etc., then you need to have them bump you up to the next level of support.

For others reading this thread....   If you know of anyone that has actually let someone connect remotely to their computer that they did not reach out to and are not a know entity, I'd have them immediately disconnect from the internet (unplug and DISABLE the WiFi).  Then reach out to local police, FBI or other known group with a cyber criminal division and ask them for local service techs that specialize in cleaning machines.  They should have a list of reputable organizations.

If that's not an option.  I'd strongly suggest you pull off your data files (e.g. QB.QBW file, Word Docs, Excel spreadsheets, etc.  But NO programs.  Then wipe and rebuild your computer from scratch.

Called a 247quickbooks number from online. They asked for the license number and name on the account. I provided it to them and they asked how often we back up our info and that it looked like there were links broken and that they wanted to connect to my pc. I had never had that happen. Is this normal? I hung up after they asked for that information.

Hello there, newbie454.

Thanks for coming in and sharing your experience with us. 

My colleagues and other QuickBooks users provided some great information and suggestions on how to deal with fraudulent acts.

We have developed a new way for our customers to reach us. This is the Call Me Back option where QuickBooks specialist personally initiates the call. 

As mentioned above, outbound calls from a QuickBooks representative should not ask for any personal information. Though it's good that you disconnected the call immediately, I'd still recommend you always report any suspicious calls and fraudulent acts directly to us by emailing it to spoof@intuit.com.

For any QuickBooks Desktop concerns, here'a a reliable link to reach us out: Contact the QuickBooks Desktop Customer Support Team.

Also, the Community always has your back and I'd be delighted to help should you have any QuickBooks related questions.

Got one yesterday. They have even spoofed "Mountain View California" in the caller ID. The crook claimed my subscription had expired and wanted my updated credit card information. I informed him my payroll subscription was good until September. He insisted this was another subscription and that my Quick Books is currently disabled because the subscription has expired. The guy had just enough information about my account to be very concerning. I had just been working in Quick Books so knew it was working just fine and I have a desktop version that is not saved into the cloud. Additionally I have no subscriptions other than payroll. After protracted haggling I told him I would have to call him back.

Today I called Intuit to complain about the unwanted call. Yep, it was a scammer. The matter has been turned over to Intuit security.

I just got a similar call but it was notifying me that the credit card on our Quickbooks account wasn't authorizing so we'd have to update it. He actually told me I could update it in the Quickbooks app but then to call us to inform them of the update. 

Problem is we use the desktop version which doesn't require a subscription, thus no credit card on file. Obvious fraud. 

The call back number they gave was [removed]. Intuit really ought to follow up on this. A larger company with an accounting clerk with a company credit card could have fallen for this.