Support As A Business: Ignored Scams

      Generally speaking, when people have work for me it is to accomplish a partial task. Build this website, recover this data, teach this skill, etc. Often enough, in the process of doing what I’ve been asked, other things come to my attention. At which point I’ll bring them to the attention of the client, offer my opinion, and let them decide on a course of action.

      Which is how it should be. While I have a decent amount of knowledge in my field, at the end of the day I don’t have to live with the situation. The client does. So it is fitting that the final decision rests with them.

      Most of the time this all works out. Either the issue was more opinion then anything else. Or my advice/expertise is listened to and followed. But every once in a while, it’s not. Which brings us back to the title.

Without A Care
      I’ve recently run into this in a few situations. While the details differed, in a general sense they were the same. The client paid for ‘fake computer services‘, generally referred to as scams. When I brought this to their attention, there appeared to be no concern.

      Freely acknowledging this is the clients decision to make. It was outside of the scope of work assigned to me. Yet it also fell inside the general expertise for which I was being paid. Hence frustrating to see money being wasted, and unscrupulous individuals profiting. Again, ‘leading a horse to water‘.

It’s A Scam
      Which is a good spot to reiterate that unsolicited computer ‘help’ is almost certainly a scam of some sort. Either they are trying to sell you a service you don’t need, leverage access for malicious intent, or gathering data for other scamming. If you didn’t go looking for help, you shouldn’t trust any offers that jump in front of you.

Not My Choice
      At the end of the day, I do what I can. Say my piece and move on, back to the task for which I am being paid. As much as I may want my advice to be followed, as happy as I would be to help, as I believe it is the proper course of action, it’s not my decision to make. I wouldn’t want someone, no matter how well intentioned, to force themselves on me. So it’s only fair I don’t force myself on others.

      Keeping particular examples of occurrences vague because no one needs to have their details shared like that…