Mac support scam alert

I tried to get mac support this afternoon for an ICloud / AppleID problem that occurred after I installed 10.8.2. I googled "mac support" and somehow landed up on a site that looked like the mac site, that had me call 877-607-3944 as the support number. I thought the "877" prefix seemed strange, but dialed through anyway.

My problem was that after I installed 10.8.2 my Apple ID no longer worked - it turns out that under some conditions the ITunes/ICloud system wants you to re-agree to the terms and conditions after you change your operating system.

At any rate, the company presents itself as Apple Tech support. I got this technician that gave me a total run-around about how I had not saved the appropriate files (?) when I installed the new OS, hence the problem was all my fault, and that I would have to talk to advanced technical support. Since I had only purchased technical support, not advanced technical support when I bought my mac, I would have to pay $300 for three years of support to fix the problem! Of course there is no distinction between regular and advanced tech support at Apple, and the "saving files" issue was totally bogus.

The actual solution was fairly simple once I got hold of the real Apple support people.

Going back I cannot seem to find their web site again, but I did see other sites that have an 877-607 number. I would caution anyone against having anything to do with an ostensible Apple support Co that has that phone prefix,

Thanks for the heads up.

Can you tell us the website, or just the name of the url without the dotcom info?

It appears that this is a real fly by night operation; the website I first went to has been taken down already, as have the several other "Apple service" web sites I found that used an 877-607 number.

Digging around for information on that specific number reveals nothing at all: there is no "reverse look-up" info out there. However, I did come across a site that is tracking scams emanating from 877-607 numbers generally. Thus, this prefix may be favored by hit and run scammers.

That scam is usually done by cold calling for Windows users, and has the same pattern of small fly-by-night operations that exist to get your credit card number

If you have not already done so call Apple Customer Relations and ask them to forward this info to Apple Legal. They take these issues very seriously.