The Norfolk County OPP say that a store employee helped prevent a senior from falling victim to a scam.
On Monday, police say they received a call from a concerned Canadian Tire employee in Simcoe after an elderly resident tried to purchase nearly $1000 in gift cards.
Police say the resident had received a call indicating their computer had viruses and the gift cards would be needed to clear the viruses.
The Canadian Tire employee stopped the victim from buying the gift cards and contacted the police, who later learned the victim had previously purchased around $3000 in gift cards for the unknown suspect.
This is the second time this has happened at Canadian Tire.
On Wednesday, July 8th, police investigated an incident after receiving a call from a concerned employee at the Canadian Tire on Queensway East.
It was determined that an elderly resident received a call from an unknown male indicating that they were with Microsoft. The victim allowed remote access to their computer at which time they were then requested to attend and purchase approximately $4,000 in gift cards in order to help clear the viruses that had been detected.
Police are asking everyone to hang up the phone if they receive a call from someone claiming to be from a computer company and asking for remote access to your computer.
This particular scam will start out with the residence receiving a call out of the blue from someone claiming to be from Windows/Microsoft or an Anti-Malware company indicating 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 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 OPP 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, but only when you instigate the call for help. Don’t be a victim. Fraud is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that will only stop when the scammers stop getting money, banking information or personal information.
If you think you have spotted a scam or have been targeted by a scam, there are a number of government agencies in Canada that you can contact for advice or to make a report. This may help you and prevent others from being targeted by scam operators.
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
www.antifraudcentre.ca
1-888-495-8501
The Competition Bureau’s Information Centre
www.competitionbureau.gc.ca
1-800-348-5358
Getting Help and Reporting a Scam
Consumer Affairs Office
www.consumerhandbook.ca
Canadian Council of Better Business Bureau
www.ccbbb.ca
Canada Revenue Agency-Charities Directorate
www.cra-arc.gc.ca
1-800-267-2384
People that believe that they may have been part of a scam can contact the credit bureaus who can put a fraud alert on your account, which will alert lenders and creditors of potential fraud.
Equifax: 1-800-465-7166
TransUnion: 1-866-525-0262
For more information and tips on how to prevent fraud, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website at www.antifraudcentre.ca.