Nancy Page

“Scams & Scareware” 

Your phone rings:
“Hello. I am calling from Amazon. Please provide me with your credit card number to renew your Prime membership. You will save money if we do it right now.” You want to save money so you provide the info and have now given a licence to steal your money to whoever this person is. Amazon does NOT make phone calls to renew memberships. 

“Hello. I am calling from Microsoft because your computer is infected with many viruses. This is a fake tech support call. Large companies are not paying employees to sit around and call you to find out if you need help. Do not give anyone remote access to your computer. HANG UP! 

“Hello. I am calling to tell you we have a warrant for your arrest unless you pay the amount owed immediately. Officers will come to your house and arrest you.” Press 1 to speak to an agent and pay with your credit card. This is not real. HANG UP! 

If scammers manage to catch a few people every day in their schemes, it is worthwhile for them. Don’t help them steal your money. Scareware sneaks in through internet browsing and can be in the form of a pop-up on your screen that tells you that your computer has virus infectons that will destroy your operating system and files. ‘Call this number or download this software’ are just ruses to get you to buy something you don’t need. There are two radio buttons: ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. ‘Yes’ just might be programmed under both of the boxes so don’t click on either one. Shut down the computer, restart, clean out internet browser temporary files, and scan with a good antivirus, malware program such as Malwarebytes.