Police have
warned that computer scammers have been actively targeting people in the
South-east Queensland area over the past two weeks.
The scam involves people taking a call from a person claiming to be
working at a foreign call centre, known as “The Windows Service Centre” or
similar. The offender claims to belong to a software support company requested
by Microsoft to fix problems on the victim’s computer and informs the victim
their PC is infected with viruses and needs to be fixed urgently or it will be
destroyed.
The offender will then direct the victim through a process on their
computer ultimately giving the offender remote access to the computer to
download viruses or gain access to personal information.
Once the offender has gained access, they will then give or sell the
victim software in order to prevent this problem in the future. The victim,
instead of downloading anti-virus software, may well be installing a virus on
their computer which may be used to gather credit card and identity data.
“In reality, there is nothing
wrong with their computer but the scammer has tricked the consumer into
believing there is a problem and that paying the fee is the best way to get it
fixed. Often they will also push the customer to buy a one year computer
maintenance subscription. They are just trying to scam innocent Australians out
of money,” Detective Superintendent Brian Hay of the Fraud and Cyber Crime
Group said.
“Microsoft is not cold-calling consumers in regards to malfunctioning
PCs, viruses or any other matter, nor have they engaged other entities on their
behalf.”
“Giving someone you don’t know remote
access to your computer is basically the same as handing your credit card
details over to them. With this access, an offender can easily search your
computer for banking or personal details or quite easily load malicious
software onto your computer.
“If someone calls you with an offer like this, hang up the phone immediately,”
Detective Superintendent Hay said.
Police have reminded people to never reveal personal or financial
information to any person who “cold calls” them on the phone.
They said that it appears some of the targeted victims of this scam have
previously engaged in a phone survey some weeks earlier.
This innocuous survey sought no personal information; however, it did
query information regarding the householder’s computer equipment. When armed
with this information at a later date, the fraudster is able to gain
credibility of the consumer to better scam them from their money.
Anyone with information which could
assist with this matter should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously via 1800 333
000 or crimestoppers.com.au
24hrs a day.
