OXFORD COUNTY, ON.) – The Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.), Oxford County Detachment are once again reminding Oxford County residents about the Microsoft or personal banking scams. Police have received complaints from residents throughout Oxford County who have fallen victim to this scam.
On Tuesday, July 30, 2013, police were contacted by a concerned resident after they received a call from a male who advised he was conducting a bank audit on her bank against the bank tellers. The suspect told the resident to explain to tellers that the money was for a sick relative. The resident agreed to meet the male in a public place and gave the suspect $4,600.00 in cash. The suspect then called the resident after the meeting and said what a good job they did and they would be kept apprised of the investigation.
The suspect male is described as:
Male, white
In his 50’s
Thin build, clean shaven, dark hair
Wearing a dark blue shirt, a vest, and a brown felt hat
The OPP has seen an increase in calls from members of the public about computer virus scams however this particular scam will start out with the residence receiving a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from Windows or Microsoft and that they have detected a virus on your computer.
To confirm the diagnosis, the caller asks you to open Windows Event Viewer on your machine to check if it is infected. Several error messages are listed and this reinforces their claims, even though errors are common and usually harmless. The caller tells you that these are of significant concern and offers to refer you to a ‘technician’ who could fix the problem—for a fee and will require remote access to your computer.
At this point, you’re offered a number of solutions that seem to make perfect sense. Depending on the intent of the particular scammer involved, the ‘technician’ might:
Install an antivirus program on your computer, typically the kind that you can download for free from reputable companies and charge up to $250 for the service.
Ask for your credit card details but install nothing. Your details might then be sold to other parties or used for fraudulent purposes.
Install malware on your computer—this enables your computer to be controlled remotely for other illegal and harmful activities.
Access and steal personal and financial details from your computer.
Follow-up scam
Scammers have also been known to make follow-up calls to people who initially fell victim to the scam. In these calls the scammer falsely claims to be from a foreign government, foreign law enforcement body, or from your bank, and offers to recover the money that you initially lost in return for a fee.
PROTECT YOURSELF
Don’t accept anything at face value, if it sounds unlikely or too good to be true, it probably is.
Recognize the signs, if you’re being pressured to act, disclose personal details or send money to a stranger, it’s almost certainly a scam. For example, Microsoft never makes unsolicited phone calls about its products.
Act quickly, contact the O.P.P. at 1-888-310-1122 and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 and stop scammers in their tracks.
Never respond. Just simply hang up the phone and report this incident to the O.P.P. and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at www.antifraudcentre.ca
As you can see, if you follow their instructions, they can easily trick a non-technical victim into believing that their computer really is infected and allow Microsoft” into their computer remotely to fix it.
Remote service is perfectly fine and safe
