As with nearly anywhere else services are purchased and paid for, computer repair fraud is rampant and growing. This is primarily due to the fact that most computer users know only enough to be able to use the computer. Unscrupulous individuals are quick to take advantage of that lack of knowledge in order to rip off the consumer.

This is certainly nothing new, but the proliferation of fraud in the last half-century has concentrated on technology. The fewer people who know about the technology, the easier it is to soak them for their hard earned cash. Before the computer age, auto repair fraud was the big hitter, primarily aimed at those the least likely to know anything about repairs, mostly women.

Women have increasingly grown to know more about cars. Computer repair fraud has a wider base, though. The technology is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up with even for the experienced computer user, regardless of gender. Women are no longer almost exclusively targeted, almost everyone is.

It takes very little time for someone who is very knowledgeable in computer technology and who is up to date to tell that someone else isn’t. The less a person knows about computers, the easier and faster it becomes to determine it.

There are things the consumers can do to protect themselves, however. We aren’t talking about learning the intricate inner workings of the computer, though a person can certainly do that. Most don’t have the time. Learning about the workings of the computer for the majority of computer users is like learning a completely new language. It requires a lot of time and effort, and frankly tends to be boring.

It doesn’t hurt to learn the basics of the computer, however, and that is much easier to do. Knowing what RAM does and what it is, takes a few minutes. But having the information can throw up a roadblock for a computer repairperson trying to sell you more RAM or the wrong type of RAM, when you don’t need it in the first place, for instance.

Always be suspicious of any repairman who talks only in terms you can’t understand, and who won’t explain what they are talking about. ‘The riser on the motherboard has stopped functioning due to corrosion on the print board,’ for instance, may indeed be true. A good repair tech, though, will explain in simpler terms what they are talking about and will usually show you.

Under no circumstances should you be afraid to ask what, how, or why. A trained and reputable repair tech can easily

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