BALTIMORE — The FBI is warning online shoppers about an increase in computer support scams. Cyber criminals are posing as technical or repair service representatives, then gain access to personal bank accounts.
Despite the usual tricks like rebooting and control-alt-delete, the alert on Trish Thomas’s husband’s computer wouldn’t go away.
“It says do not close your computer. Across the bottom, it said called Microsoft support and it had a toll-free number. So, I thought okay, I guess I better call,” said Thomas.
The message, supposedly from Microsoft, suddenly appeared on a Google Chrome Book.
“He acted like he could see that our bank accounts were being used. He told me that there’s a $5,000 charge for something, and another $1,000 subscription for pornographic stuff, I went that’s not ours,” said Thomas.
The man claiming to be a Microsoft representative had Thomas transfer her savings into her checking account, but when he asked for a photo of her driver’s license, something in her told her to stop.
“I said no, I don’t feel comfortable doing that I can go to my bank branch tomorrow and show them my ID and they can take care of the rest of this. And with that, click, he hangs up,” Thomas recalled.
Serene Coons received a similar message.
“And he told me that my computer was being hacked, my ID number,” said Coons.
She sent him $1,400 to have the issue resolved.
“The way he was talking to me, he really sounded like a professional,” Coons said.
Cybersecurity…
