Computer Scam – Another Incident Reported

Following  another incident  reported to us we would like to remind residents of  a number of computer scams presenting in varying forms.

On some occasions the caller states that they are phoning from a well known computer company, on other occasions they state they are from an internet service provider.

On occasions the caller states that there is a fault with the consumers computer, or they state that it has picked up a virus, or claim that the consumers computer has been hacked. On this occasion they informed the resident that their computer was ‘about to crash’.

The caller states they can rectify the problem. On occasions payment was requested by Western Union, on other occasions bank or credit card details are requested.

On occasions the callers offer a telephone number for’ technical support’ or other departments to lure people into a false sense of security.

On this occasion the resident was aware that this was a scam.

Advice from Trading Standards is to never give out your bank details or any other personal information to anyone you don’t know.

If you have received a phone call like this and you have disclosed your details, we would advise you to check with your bank and credit card providers as to whether unauthorised amounts of money have been taken out of your account.

If you have given any passwords for your PC we would advise that you get your PC examined for any potential spyware or viruses.

If anyone is concerned that there may be problems with their computer they can either contact their service provider or details of local computer engineers can be found in the telephone directory or Yellow pages.