Is Tech Care Live assoc with Apple?

Question

My iMac gave me a security alert today and with it indicated that I should immediately call 866-782-9808.  The alert would not go away or allow me off the page.  They charged me $399.99 for a cleanup, which I am okay with if they are a legit business. But if they are not how did they get ahold of my computer? I am too old for this.

Answer 1

You were the victim of a crime, but there's little chance of prosecution, because the perpetrator is almost certainly in another country with a weak legal system.
The only way you can be sure that the computer is not compromised is to erase at least the startup volume and restore it to something like the status quo ante. The easiest approach is to recover the entire system from a backup that predates the attack. Obviously, that's only practical if you know when the attack took place, and it was recent, and you have such a backup. You will lose all changes to data, such as email, that were made after the time of the snapshot. Some of those changes can be restored from a later backup.
If the attack happened too long ago for a complete rollback to be feasible, then you should erase and install OS X. If you don't already have at least two complete, independent backups of all data, then you must make them first. One backup is not enough to be safe.
When you restart after the installation, you'll be prompted to go through the initial setup process for a new computer. That’s when you transfer the data from a backup in Setup Assistant.
Select only users in the Setup Assistant dialog—not Applications, Other files and folders, or Computer & Network Settings. Don't transfer the Guest account, if it was enabled.
Reinstall third-party software from original media or fresh downloads—not from a backup, which may be contaminated.
Unless you were the target of an improbably sophisticated attack, this procedure will leave you with a clean system. If you have reason to think that you were the target of a sophisticated attack, then you need expert help.
That being done, change all Internet passwords and check all financial accounts for unauthorized transactions. Do this after the system has been secured, not before.