Warning issued after Flintshire resident targeted by scammers
OWL Cymru – the Flintshire based community safety charity – has issued a warning to residents about a scam it was alerted to recently.
The scam, which is, unfortunately, a very common one – involves a random phone call to a householder claiming their computer has been hacked and is infected with a virus.
The OWL Cymru states:
“A Flintshire resident received a call on 1st May from a person who claimed that her computer had been hacked and that there was a Trojan virus on it that was ‘multiplying by the minute.’
They asked for remote access to her computer, which was given.
They then said they were going to refund her for the inconvenience by paying £2000 into her account.
They said this was the minimal they could pay in and that she would have to ‘refund some of the monies’.
The resident was then asked to repay over £1712.00, then a further £1,512.
The caller then said he was going off duty and for her to leave the computer on and someone will ‘sort it’.
The resident then had a call from a female who asked for further amount of money on ‘Google Play’ cards.
The resident stated that the caller was very convincing, even providing a Job ID number.
It was while purchasing the Google Play cards that a relative intervened and the scam was spotted.
The resident has reported the incident to Police and enquiries are in progress.”
OWL Cymru states; “this is a scam to steal money from you.
Click on the link below for advice from Action Fraud in identifying scam calls actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/c… .
Please warn others about this scam.”
If you ever get such a call, it’s a scam, and experts say you should simply hang up. Tech companies simply won’t call you to offer services to fix your computer.
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