Scams are nothing new to the world of photography, but the level of sophistication that some of these pull off is a whole other level entirely.
This week it looks like owners of Canon printers are facing a well-targeted threat that not only impersonates Canon themselves but, more specifically, Canon Printers and related customer service and troubleshooting.
After directing users to a fake website, these scammers then either give the user fake driver software for their printer or offer to fix “the issue” for a fee and thus obtain the user’s financial information. The primary method of tricking people, according to Gizmodo, is targeting unsuspecting users who are looking for authentic Canon printer driver software. They then either download illicit driver software or receive the aforementioned “customer service for a fee.” It’s all very simple and yet also quite complex at the same time.
The stories over at Gizmodo range from the quite complex to the fairly mundane yet one thing they all have in common is the exorbitant amounts these scammers were requesting for “support packages” and “driver software.”
One pro tip is to check the address of the website you are visiting. If you see anything other than Brand dot com, it’s probably best to avoid that website or reference printed materials for the appropriate web URL. Any product from Canon, HP, or otherwise will come with, at a very minimum, a website for you to contact should you need anything. That’s the only place you should go, web search really isn’t that reliable in this regard. We suspect that is how most people are being tricked.
Again, you can read more than a few horror stories over on Gizmodo at this link.
And once the FTC decides how to handle all of this, we’ll update you then, too.
If you have any experience with this kind of scam, we’d like to hear your story in the comments below. Thanks ahead of time!
Check out some of our other photography news on Light Stalking at this link right here as well as our rundown of the best printers for photographers.
[Gizmodo]
