Yahoo Finance Don’t fall for the scammers, police warn as fake messages cost Londoners £860k
Londoners were tricked out of more than £860,000 last year by conmen claiming to be offering help to fix computer problems, new figures show.
A total of 1,073 people in the capital fell victim to crooks pretending to be from “tech support” attached to big firms such as Microsoft or Apple . The problem is so serious that Microsoft has seconded an employee to work with City of London police’s fraud intelligence unit to help combat the scammers.
The victims, mostly elderly, are targeted with either a phone call, an email or a pop-up message on their computer stating something is wrong with the machine or the internet connection. The message will claim to be from a group such as “‘Microsoft Tech Support”, or will ask for credit card information to “validate your copy of Windows”.
A demand for payment to fix the issue follows, or criminals install software to access personal and financial details.
Another scam tells people they have won the “Microsoft Lottery”. Action Fraud, the reporting centre for cyber crime, has launched a campaign to help people avoid becoming a victim. Londoners lost a total of £862,585 in the financial year 2017/18. City police’s fraud intelligence bureau said the average age of victims was 63. There were 22,609 reports of such frauds across Britain, with losses of £21.3 million, but officials believe the figures are far greater as many people do not report cases.
Lara Xenoudakis, temporary detective chief inspector at City of London police, said: “These fraudsters prey on vulnerable victims, doing everything they can to convince them there is something wrong with their computer as a way to gain immediate and in some cases multiple payments from the victim.”
Police urged computer users to treat all phones calls and messages with suspicion as firms never make unsolicited calls to help fix a problem, never request credit card details to validate software, and never ask for personally identifying information, including card details.
