Complaint Review: Itechline

About a month ago I purchased a Toshiba laptop from Costco.  After a week went by my keyboard locked up.

I looked in my information from Toshiba to get a website or even a phone number to reach them to figure out how to unlock my keyboard but found none and I wasn't able to figure it out on my own. So I did my own online search from another computer in my house.  The first website that appeared was 'suppport for toshiba' at iyogi.net.  I was in such a hurry and upset about not being able to get on my laptop when I had so many things to get done that I did not pay attention to this suspiciously named website. (I now have a program on my computer called Web of Trust - WOT-  that rates the saftey of sites before you click on them) I love this program and recommend it to all of you.  It has a high warning against iyogi.net!  Anyway, I called the number from the website and got  a man sounding from India.  I explained to him that there was a light on my laptop mouse pad that was not there before and I needed to unlock my keyboard.  He said the light had nothing to do with a locked keyboard and that he needed to have access to my computer remotely to troubleshoot the problem.  I thought this was extreme but I agreed.  Once on my computer it appreared he was going through tons of data and files and all of a sudden he quietly utterred "oh dear we have a problem." he then proceeded to circle and highlight in red, data and he said that my computer was 40% compromised and if the people doing this got to 60% access to my files I would be unable to retrieve data and they would have all my personal information.  I was stunned but somewhat believed I was being hacked because 2 days prior to that I got a call from my bank saying someone was trying to make online charges with my account number.  Also, since I googled the information I thought I was contacting a legitimate Toshiba website.  Itechline sets up those fake website too as I later found out. The Indian agent said this was such a severe issue he could not fix the problem and that he had to get a Level 5 technician on the line and that would cost me $199.99.  I told him it was a brand new laptop and I had a 2 year warranty why did I have to pay anything?  I was so suspicious but did not know what else to do so I okayed the charges , he put me on the line to another Indian who said it would take about 45 to restore the security of my computer.   The whole while I was watching data stream on my laptop.  He finally anounced the problems were fixed. I even foolishly asked him to show me that all the red highlighted information was no longer highlighted in red.  He did this and "confirmed" my computer was now safe.

I did not feel right about this for hours and finally googled the company name only to find out this was a totally fraudulent company who pulls this scam on many people in a variety of ways.  I called my credit union and sure enough there were pending charges of $199.99. My banker said once the charges cleared she could file the necesary paperwork to refund my money.  In the meantime I emailed Itechline back telling them I learned of the fraud and that they were scheming lying cheating thieves and that I would see their company shut down!

I checked with my credit union several days later and was told those pending charges were reversed and Itechline never took the money. I did hire a computer expert I have known for years in Portland Oregon (SoftServe PC's)and whom I trust completey and had him go through all my files and data and programs to make sure the Itechline people did not put anything on my laptop to capture any of my personal information and to clean it up, put AVAST securtiy program on and install the program WOT. 

Of course I will always have this lingering doubt that my computer is completly secure.  I guess nothing is. I check my bank withdrawals monthly to make sure they did not come back and try and take the $199.99.  I did cancel the credit card of course but this kind of breach and knowledge of the capabilites of these criminals makes one feel insecure forever more.