You never know when the calls you receive from someone who claims to work for a company are actually legitimate. This has been a problem for years, and Dell users seem to be experiencing it more frequently than others.
Dell Incident Led to Data Leak
The manufacturing giant has recently notified an unknown number of its customers of an incident involving a Dell portal, which contained a database with limited types of customer information. If you think there's not much to go on from that, you are right.
Dell refused to elaborate on the vague message, but it does coincide with a report stating that a bad actor is supposedly selling information from Dell customers in late April. The dark web sale was said to have acquired the information of 49 million customers.
The information in question includes names, physical addresses, phone numbers, purchase information like service tag, item description, date of order, and related warranty information, as per Ars Technica. The affected customers are those who made purchases between 2017 to 2024.
To make matters worse, it's not just customers who are affected by the breach. The seller claims that they also obtained company information and that they are the sole possessor of the data. The data provided by the bad actor showed millions of rows of customer purchases.
There were also data pointing to enterprises, partners, schools, or unidentified entities. This finally offers clarity as to why Dell customers keep getting calls from "employees," a lot of which turn out to be scams.
Since the caller knows private information that only the company and the customer should know, the fraudulent call becomes more believable. The customers, in turn, provide other data like financial information resulting in them losing money.
A Dell spokesperson denied any relation to the noted incident and the sale of customer information on the dark web, although there were also no further explanations regarding the matter. "We believe there is not a significant risk to our customers given the type of information involved."
How to Avoid Being Scammed Through Calls
This can be tricky since the scammers are capable of calling from a valid Dell phone number, so extra caution is advised. If you happen to receive a call from someone claiming to be a Dell employee, it's best to ask what they need from you first.
If they don't require you to provide any information, then you may entertain the caller as it might be an actual call from a company employee. If they ask for information, however, it's best not to provide any for now and hang up immediately.
If you're worried that it may be a legitimate concern, you can call the direct support line from Dell. The number, 1-866-795-5597, is a 24/7 service where you can ask if an employee really did call you for assistance and information.
Since the threat actors managed to steal physical addresses as well, the fraudulent activity mail extend to physical mail. If so, check the mail and see if it is asking for information. If so, you can again call the service line and ask if the company sent it. Or, you can just ignore it entirely.
