BALTIMORE — A computer scam that imitates Microsoft customer support locks the screen on your device and instructs you to call a phone number.
Everything about the warning looked real to Trish Thomas, so she followed the instructions, even giving the impostors access to her bank account. But right before she transferred any money, her radar went up.
“I had already experienced atleast 3, 4 of them and I don’t fall for those,” said Thomas who knows better than to fall for phone scams. But she’d never seen a message like the one on her husband’s Google Chromebook supposedly from Microsoft technical support.
“It says do not close your computer,” Thomas recalled. “Across the bottom, it said call Microsoft support and it had a toll-free number, so I thought okay, I guess I better call.”
A man told her there’s unusual activity on her bank account. She’d need to download AnyDesk, an application giving him access to her phone then log into her bank account.
“He told me there’s a $5,000 charge for something, and another $1,000 subscription for pornographic stuff, I went that’s not ours,” Thomas said.
He then asked her for the customer service number on the back of her bank card. He’d call that number and connect her with the bank on a secure line.
“We did indeed transfer what was in my savings into my checking, we got that far and then he says well, I just want to verify your identity,” said Thomas. “He said can you take a picture of your driver’s…
