International Scammers have made an elderly Papamoa woman pay $1000 to get her computer free of their virus. Even worse, some other scammers tried scamming me too. Let's see what happened to the woman and then me:
What Happened To "The Woman"
:
A Papamoa woman found herself sucked in by a con-artist claiming to be from Microsoft despite fending off dozens of phone calls from scammers in the past few months.
And the mistake has cost her $1000 and "a lot of trauma".
The 73-year-old woman, who was still shaken by the incident and spoke on condition she was not to be named, was convinced her Microsoft computer licence had expired and agreed to pay almost $300 for it to be renewed last Monday.
"We've resisted the calls for several months sometimes several a night, certainly several a week. Unfortunately one last week I got hooked into and I sat in front of my computer and let the person in," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"I argued with them for almost three hours."
The man claimed hackers could get into her computer and carry out illegal activities, such as the distribution or pornography, in her name.
The caller then locked the woman out of her computer even though she had agreed to pay.
Luckily her bank caught on to what was happening and stopped the transaction.
"The next morning the bank rang me and asked me if I had been speaking to somebody overseas who wanted some money. They said straight away it was a phone scam and they hadn't actually got money out of my account, but I had to shut down my credit card."
A computer technicianwas able to get into the computer, restore her files and rid it of any viruses at a cost of about $1000.
"It was frightening. To be honest I felt guilty and stupid. I made a mistake. It's cost us money. It's cost us a lot of trauma. It's been a week from hell really."
Papamoa police Sergeant Phil Gillbanks said he had heard from a few people targeted by the same scam in the past couple of weeks.
"The calls are made from an unknown overseas location. Do not allow these people access to your computer. Do not pay any money," he said.
Mr Gillbanks had also received reports of another computer scam in which the computer's inbuilt camera was used to take a photo of the user which then appeared on a web page which popped up informing them they were breaking the law and had a police fine to pay.
Craig Computers owner Mike Craig said he often had people come to him after they had been locked out of their computer by such scams.
Mr Craig estimated he fixed about one computer every three weeks that had been targeted by scammers. He also received two to four calls for advice from customers who had suspicious sounding callers offering computer advice each week.
"A lot of people are starting to ask the questions which is good," he said.
"If any one rings up and says there's something wrong with your computer, it's a scam. Microsoft won't ring up and say there's something wrong with your computer."
Budget Mobiles and Computers store manager Aamir Hussein said three or four customers had come to him after being locked out of their computer by a scammer.
Most of the time the hard drive needed to be re-formated, which often meant people lost all their personal data, he said.
(Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm c_id=1503343&objectid=11152414)
What Happened TO Me:
I was scrolling through my inbox in my usual E-Mail,
lofangas@gmail.com, and saw a message which stuck out. The message went like this:
dinagomez@post.com
Nov 7
To Recipients
Microsoft Corporation Sweepstakes Promotion,
Customer Service.
Your Winning Batch No: HLS/LTY/2901
Your Winning Reference No: MIC/029/2910
OFFICIAL WINNING NOTIFICATION.
We are pleased to inform you of the release of the long awaited results of Sweepstakes promotion organized by Microsoft Corporations, in conjunction with the FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOFTWARE products, (F.P.S.) held on November 2013, in Madrid Spain. Where in your email address emerged as one of the online Winning emails in the 2nd category and therefore attracted a cash award of Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros Only and a Toshiba Laptop.
The Microsoft Internet E-mail lottery Awards is sponsored by former CEO/Chairman and a consortium of software promotion companies. The Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers and other International Companies. The Microsoft internet E-mail draw is held periodically and is organized to encourage the use of the Internet and promote computer literacy worldwide.
To file for the release of your winning you are advice to contact our Foreign Transfer Manager:
Mr. James Marshall
Tel:0034-603-300-478
Fax:0034-917-692-866
Email:claims.dept@micrsofti.com
INFORMATION NEEDED FROM YOU TO SEND YOUR LAPTOP AND TO ISSUE YOUR CHEQUE ON YOUR FULL NAME AND CONTACT ADDRESS!!
YOUR FULL NAME:
OCCUPATION:
AGE:
SEX:
ADDRESS:
POST CODE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
MOBILE-TELEPHONE:
FAX NUMBER:
WINNER EMAIL ADDRESS:
REFERENCE NUMBER:
AMOUNT WON:
As soon as you send the information to us by Email, this will enable us to start your Verification Procedure from our Office here in Madrid Spain .However once the verification is done all the necessary documents that are required for you to receive your laptop and Cash Cheque in your country will be filed along with your winning CHEQUE PARCEL CONSIGNMENT via COURIER to your contact address you will provide.
Congratulations!!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Dina Gomez,
Promotions Manager.
(Group Co-ordinator)
So block "Mrs Dina Gomez" from your inbox just to be safe. I escaped but she didn't. I
