Lebanon County District Attorney David Arnold wants the public to be aware of an ongoing phone scam involving people claiming to be from Microsoft or other computer support companies.
County residents have been receiving phone calls from 804-435-5322 in which heavily accented callers are advising victims their computer warranties and/ or antivirus protection has expired. The victims are offered support plans varying from 1-3 years, or a special price for a lifetime support plan. The callers are also offering senior citizen discounts. The victims are being encouraged to log into a website, such as viewmypc.com or logmein123.com so the caller may assist them in seeing the issues on their computer screen.
Doing so, relinquishes control of your computer to the caller, who may steal your personal information contained upon the machine and/or install malicious code to harvest personal information at a later time. Additionally, the callers have requested credit card numbers to pay for this bogus service, and/ or will open up a Western Union website to direct the victim to a Western Union location nearest them to wire funds.
One local victim was conned into providing two credit card numbers over the phone, and after being told the transactions didn’t go through, was encouraged to also send cash through Western Union.
DA Arnold warns residents to be suspicious of anyone calling your residence and offering a service you have not expressed interest in. Never give an unsolicited called credit card information over the phone and don’t allow someone you don’t know to control your computer/or access it remotely unless you initiated the contact.
Arnold also suggests you routinely monitor your credit card/ debit card account statements during this holiday season as there have been an extreme number of reports concerning comprised credit card accounts.
County residents have been receiving phone calls from 804-435-5322 in which heavily accented callers are advising victims their computer warranties and/ or antivirus protection has expired. The victims are offered support plans varying from 1-3 years, or a special price for a lifetime support plan. The callers are also offering senior citizen discounts. The victims are being encouraged to log into a website, such as viewmypc.com or logmein123.com so the caller may assist them in seeing the issues on their computer screen.
Doing so, relinquishes control of your computer to the caller, who may steal your personal information contained upon the machine and/or install malicious code to harvest personal information at a later time. Additionally, the callers have requested credit card numbers to pay for this bogus service, and/ or will open up a Western Union website to direct the victim to a Western Union location nearest them to wire funds.
One local victim was conned into providing two credit card numbers over the phone, and after being told the transactions didn’t go through, was encouraged to also send cash through Western Union.
DA Arnold warns residents to be suspicious of anyone calling your residence and offering a service you have not expressed interest in. Never give an unsolicited called credit card information over the phone and don’t allow someone you don’t know to control your computer/or access it remotely unless you initiated the contact.
Arnold also suggests you routinely monitor your credit card/ debit card account statements during this holiday season as there have been an extreme number of reports concerning comprised credit card accounts.