A recent series of scams conducted through phonecalls have prompted the police to issue an advisory regarding the fraudulent schemes that involve computer software.
There have been several reports of victims receiving calls from unknown individuals who claim to be technical support personnel from major software companies, who would inform them that their computers required security or software updates.
They would then be directed to download and install software from the internet, and will be asked to provide user account ID codes and passwords to the caller. In some cases, victims were instructed to input certain commands into their computers.
Doing so would enable the callers to remotely control the victim's computers, with some even finding crucial files deleted. The callers would then convince their duped victims to buy additional software by making online payments or provide their credit card details.
The public are advised to ignore such calls and not to follow the instructions from the 'technical support personnel', and if possible scan for virus or malware on computers. And just in case it's not obvious enough — never, ever give out account passwords and credit card details to total strangers.
Photo: Martin Cathrae via Flickr
A recent series of scams conducted through phonecalls have prompted the police to issue an advisory regarding the fraudulent schemes that involve computer software.
There have been several reports of victims receiving calls from unknown individuals who claim to be technical support personnel from major software companies, who would inform them that their computers required security or software updates.
They would then be directed to download and install software from the internet, and will be asked to provide user account ID codes and passwords to the caller. In some cases, victims were instructed to input certain commands into their computers.
Doing so would enable the callers to remotely control the victim's computers, with some even finding crucial files deleted. The callers would then convince their duped victims to buy additional software by making online payments or provide their credit card details.
The public are advised to ignore such calls and not to follow the instructions from the 'technical support personnel', and if possible scan for virus or malware on computers. And just in case it's not obvious enough — never, ever give out account passwords and credit card details to total strangers.
Photo: Martin Cathrae via Flickr