After the tech support scam: how we got our parent back on track

My dad called the number on a browser pop-up that said his PC was infected; someone remoted in, ran a scary scan, and sold him four hundred dollars of useless “protection.”

I flew home for a weekend to clean it up.

We wiped the machine, froze cards he had typed near the session, filed FTC complaints, and installed a password manager together—slowly, without lecturing.

We role-played scam calls until the scripts felt familiar instead of frightening.

Tech support scams prey on fear of breaking the computer; remote access lets criminals install malware or exfiltrate data.

Family “IT” burnout is real, so we wrote a one-page script: no remote tools, hang up, call me.

Dad felt foolish; I shared a phishing story of my own so the shame was not one-sided.

Six months later he texted a screenshot of a new pop-up and wrote “I declined remote”—first time he stopped it himself without calling me first.

The flight and PTO cost stung, but it was cheaper than another wire or identity loss down the line.

His daily account uses a separate admin login, no saved cards in the browser, and bookmarks only to real support pages.

• Microsoft and Apple do not put phone numbers inside browser virus warnings—that is the tell.
• Help parents rehearse hang up → call you → official app before panic sets in.

For more help, see our Report a scam page and Spot and avoid scams guide.