Microsoft testifies on fighting technical support scams

Today, David Finn, associate general counsel and executive director of the Digital Crimes Unit at Microsoft, will testify before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging regarding technical support scams.

Tech support scams are perhaps the single largest consumer fraud perpetrated in America today, victimizing an estimated 3.3 million people each year — many of them senior citizens — at an annual cost of $1.5 billion. This translates to a victim nearly every 10 seconds, with an average loss of $454 per consumer.

Since May 2014, Microsoft alone has received over 180,000 complaints about tech scams — and we know these are merely the tip of the iceberg. Consumers are also being victimized and many of these victims are not even aware that they have been scammed.

During his testimony today, David will discuss the impact of scams and the importance of education, as well as how the public and private sector can come together to help protect consumers, specifically seniors. Our Digital Crimes Unit works in collaboration with agencies such as the FTC, FBI, state and federal law enforcement and organizations like AARP to protect our consumers. We welcome the opportunity to work with other partners to help establish concrete enforcement actions to rein in these criminals, which will require strong cooperation across state, federal, and international agencies and close partnership with private industry.

Watch the hearing live to learn more:

Additional information regarding Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit and our efforts to address this growing problem can be found here: https://news.microsoft.com/presskits/dcu/