Scammers targeting NSW consumers in computer 'repair' deception: Alert Priority Moderate
You are advised not to provide personal or financial details to people who approach you online or over the phone. The New South Wales Fair Trading Commissioner has warned consumers in New South Wales of a scam that recently cost an 83 year old man from Balgownie in Wollongong $600.
The Department of Fair Trading reported that the man responded to an offer of a free download of Windows 10 and a couple of hours later, received a phone call.
It was someone claiming to be from Microsoft telling him there was something radically wrong with his computer and offering a guarantee against ongoing rectification costs for a fee of a couple of hundred dollars.
The man logged onto his computer to find the scammer already had access and was uploading failure messages in an effort to convince the man to provide his banking details.
The scammer had the man’s email address, his full name and physical address. After the man provided his credit union account details, two withdrawals together worth more than $600 were made from one of his accounts.
The man fortunately heard a report on local radio about a woman from Woonona, another suburb in Wollongong, who had been contacted by a scammer pretending to be a Telstra technician.
The scammer told the woman he needed to access her hard drive for essential repairs or she would lose internet service for a month. She hung up, rang Telstra and confirmed the scam.
When the 83 year old man contacted his credit union, he was advised the payments had gone to a company claiming to provide management services. The scammer had provided a non-existent phone number.
Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said scammers look for vulnerabilities, are ruthless in their pursuit of victims and have no moral compass whatsoever.
“I urge everyone to share this warning, with family members, friends and neighbours and within communities because we continue to see victims being robbed of their money and their dignity,” he said.
Staying safe
If you receive a cold call from someone who claims to be from a legitimate company and asks for access to your computer, hang up the phone immediately. Do not talk further to the caller and do not follow their instructions. If they call back, simply hang up again.
Many legitimate technical support teams ask you to install software on your computer to allow them access and to address your problem. However, it is important that you make the phone call to them to verify that the person you are speaking to is a legitimate representative of that company.
If you think there may be an issue with your computer, do not discuss this with any cold caller. Instead, after hanging up the phone, call the relevant organisation on their publicly available phone number. Do not use any numbers provided by cold callers, as they will probably be fake.
In addition, never give your credit card information to anyone that has called you. It can be difficult to reliably verify the identity of a caller, and hard to spot a well-crafted scam. It is advisable to confirm the phone number through a directory service such as the White Pages and contact the business directly yourself.