A Black Diamond senior who almost lost hundreds of dollars in a computer scam last week hopes others will learn from his experience.
David Betts said he was working on his computer on July 12 when a large flashing pop-up informed him that his computer was being hacked and provided a toll free number to prevent the “hacker” from accessing his personal information.
“They got me in a panic,” he said. “I thought it was Microsoft. That’s what they come up as.”
Betts said he spoke to someone with a foreign accent who insisted he give them access to his computer for two hours to fix the problem, which would come with a price tag of $733 and include a five-year protection plan. He provided his personal banking information as requested.
While Betts was on the phone, his wife called their bank to inform them of what was happening.
Then Betts became suspicious when he was told not to let any other technicians access his computer.
“That seemed a little strange,” he said. “He said if other technicians get into this account they will put in their info and muck everything up that he’s trying to do.”
Betts said he started to second guess the legitimacy of the company, which referred to itself as both Computer Goods Web Services and Cosby Business.
“It all happened so fast,” he said. “They sounded professional. I trust people too much.”
Once his bank was notified, his accounts were frozen.
When the scammers realized this, Betts received a call from them informing him that they couldn’t access his bank account to withdraw the $733.
“I just played on,” he said. “I said my bank shut down my account because they think they’re hackers trying to get into my account. They asked, ‘Could you phone them and tell them everything is okay.’”
When Betts offered to write a cheque, he was given a mailing address in Texas and passed that information on to the Turner Valley RCMP.
Although $733 was withdrawn from his account, Betts said the bank replaced it the following day.
Betts’ advice to others is to be cautious when online.
“I’m telling everyone I can, just be aware,” he said. “Hang up and shut everything down and contact security.”
Turner Valley RCMP Cpl. Tiffany McGregor said although she has not heard of computer scams being a problem in the area, she has some advice for the public to prevent themselves from being victimized by hackers.
Her first piece of advice is to not allow anybody remote access to their personal computers.
“I know there are some scams out there where a person will identify themselves as a Microsoft employee, say the computer is sending them an emergency message and need to access the computer to control it,” she said. “The only way to stop that is to turn your computer off to cut them off.”
McGregor said security packages can be purchased to assist in scanning emails and documents for viruses.
She said computer owners should also watch for messages or documents received by people they don’t know.
“I suggest you delete them and don’t access them,” she said. “If it looks odd it probably is odd.”
