Woman targeted in scam urges caution

A Banbridge woman who received a call from a man trying to scam access to personal data on her PC has urged people to beware, following her experience.
Police PSNI officer scenePolice PSNI officer scene
Police PSNI officer scene

Fortunately June Martins Ruas was savvy enough to recognise that the caller, who claimed to be from BT, was not legitimate when rang her on June 13.

Warning people via social media page Banbridge Saints and Sinners, June said: “Someone rang me this morning proudly announcing they were ringing from BT.

“They said they could see I had a faulty router and would send me a new one tomorrow, but first I needed to make changes on my computer.

“Alarm bells start ringing,” said June, “but I played along.”

The man then asked June to locate the key on her computer between the Ctrl and the Alt key, which is the windows key and he asked her to press it along with the r key.

Fortunately June knew this would open the run box.

“He was looking me to turn on remote access so he could get into my computer,” said June. “He was so convincing.

“I thanked the guy very much and told him I wasn’t allowing him access to my computer and hung up. He rang me straight back saying the line had dropped. I told him to take his scam elsewhere.

She continued: “For those who aren’t computer literate, please, Beware!”

Alarmingly, June is concerned that the caller seemed to have access to BT records, as the previous week she reported a faulty router.

“I contacted BT who assured me they don’t call people about faulty routers.”

Meanwhile Detective Chief Inspector Douglas Grant, from PSNI Cyber Crime Centre, said: “Cyber crime, in its various forms, is increasing in Northern Ireland.

“Fraudsters are using ever more sophisticated methods to gain personal information.

“I would urge anyone who receives unsolicited calls, to ignore them and never enter into conversation with someone you don’t know.

“The most popular angles for phishing scams include pretending to be from BT, iTunes/Apple ID, Revenue and Customs, a lottery organiser, PayPal, a bank or Amazon.

“Report any fraud to Action Fraud on 0300 123 20 40 or www.actionfraud.police.uk or for general advice visit www.GetSafeOnline.org.”

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