Tech-support fraud is a social-engineering scam in which an attacker pretends to be a help desk, vendor, or security technician to persuade a victim to trust them. The fake “support” contact may use a phone call, pop-up alert, email, or web chat to create urgency, then ask the victim to install remote-access software, reveal passwords, approve a payment, or ignore normal security checks.
It matters because the attack targets people and business processes rather than software bugs. Once the victim accepts the impersonation, the scam can lead to credential theft, unauthorized remote control, fraudulent fees, or deeper intrusion into an organization. Defenders reduce risk with independent callback verification, strict payment and password-reset rules, staff training, and clear escalation paths for suspicious requests. Strong identity proofing helps ensure that a person claiming to be support is verified before access or action is granted.