$8,900 lost by a Durham Couple in a Computer Virus Scam

Retired Triangle couple, Al and Amelia Lewis, lost $8,900 in a computer virus scam recently. As per Amelia Lewis, an alert message popped up while she was working on her computer that it might be at risk. Amelia said that the computer read - "don't continue to use your computer, don't shut it down".

The couple immediately called on the phone number that appeared on the screen, as it looks like the number of the company from where they have subscribed for the virus protection services. Al said, "they started telling me that they were gonna have to cancel their subscription, because of the fires in California burned the service so they're not able to protect our machines and they were going to refund our money".

Al said they believed the story that the company is going to refund their money. Thus he gave remote access of his computer to the person who was on the other side of the phone, so that they could put $318 refund money directly in his account.

But instead of refunding the amount of $318 in the bank account of Al, the computer screen shows that $3,188 appears in his account. At the same time, Al said the person on the other side of the phone said "well my boss is gonna be mad at me I might lose my job because of the mistake".

Al further said that the man on the phone told him that he cannot reverse the charges, hence he asked the couple to refund that difference by buying Walmart gift cards. Thus, the Lewis' bought gift cards worth $2,700. Al added that "he wanted us to scratch the back of the gift cards off and texted it to him. And we did that".

However, on the next morning as Al looks on his computer, he again found that two more $3,188 payments were added in his bank account by the company. So, they again purchased gift cards worth $6,200, scratch back of gift cards, and sent that number to the person who had called the couple.

The next day, the person again called and tries to do the same thing. Then the couple realized that something was wrong. The $8,900 spent by the couple on those Walmart gift cards was lost.

So, if anybody asks you to use any kind of gift cards for making payment, most probably they are scammers.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/11/2018