Phone scammers active
Tamahere Forum has some good advice that applies to anyone living pretty much anywhere – beware the phone scammers.
Our sister community website says that a local Tamahere resident fell victim to a phone-based internet scam and is keen to warn others of the dangers.
“Cold-calling scammers who claim that victims have a virus on their computer have been on the scene since at least October 2010 and the local’s experience shows they are still on the job.
“In October 2010 the Ministry of Consumer Affairs began receiving reports of a telephone-based internet scam.”
Number 8 Network has had several calls from these people, and has heard reports from Hamilton.
According to Consumer the scammers said they were from Microsoft, Telecom or other large companies:
The scammers would say that the victim had a virus on their computer and guide them through a series of tasks that would “fix” it. Usually those called were directed to a website to download a program, but the program allowed the scammer access to their computer. Alternately, the victim signs up for a pay service that keeps them “protected” for an amount of time – for example, $300 for 18 months.
This scam is sometimes known as the Web Doctor Scam, from the name of the fake protection software…
Luckily these types of “phishing” scams can be thwarted by simple critical thinking. Big companies, like Microsoft, will never contact you directly – and remember there’s no way an external party can “discover” anything on your computer unless you have explicitly given them access…
Read the Tamahere article here.
Check out all types of scams and what to do about them on the Consumer Affairs website, and internet scams in particular.
