Scammers claiming to fix computers

Posted April 18, 2011 10:11:00

Police from the state fraud squad are warning residents about a phone scam that is offering to 'cleanse' personal computers.

Detective Superintendent Brian Hay says scammers are phoning residents, telling them they are with an IT company and they need remote access to fix the 'problem'.

He says victims are charged a fee and often have personal details and credit card information stolen.

Detective Superintendent Hay says the scammers are often calling victims weeks in advance, saying they are conducting a survey.

"The survey says, look, how many computers do you have in the house, what systems are they - is it a laptop, is it a PC or a Mac? What antivirus do you use, do you ever send the error messages back to Microsoft? he said.

"What happens is when you get this second phone call that says we've identified your system has a serious glitch that we need to go through, so what they're doing is they're validating themselves as a credible product."

Topics: fraud-and-corporate-crime, crime, mackay-4740, townsville-4810