A surge in fraud has been fuelled by conmen stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from computer users by posing as engineers for legitimate companies such as Apple and Microsoft.
In an elaborate phone scam, fraudsters pretending to be computer security experts working for top companies telephone trusting people at home to tell them they are at risk of a threat.
The cyber-criminals trick the unsuspecting victims into believing they have a.....
technical problem with their devices which can be fixed remotely for a small fee.
They then deceive the person into handing over their debit or credit card details to pay for so-called ‘repairs’ – but instead fleece money from their accounts.
The scam was outlined by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday as it revealed the number of computer software service frauds in England and Wales has more than doubled from 10,784 to 21,978 – a rise of 104 per cent.
John Flatley, the ONS head of crime statistics, said: ‘Someone will receive a bogus phone call at home from someone claiming they are an Apple or Microsoft engineer who says they have noticed a problem and that they can fix it remotely if they can just get some credit card details so they can take a fee of £30. It’ s done there and then.’
Other computer software frauds include conmen claiming to be selling the latest anti-virus software on behalf of computer giants and pop-up notifications telling victims their iPhone and iPad software has crashed and they must dial a support helpline.
In total, Action Fraud – which collates reports of scams – recorded a 9 per cent increase to 230,630 in the year to March 2015. These include card fraud, bogus online auctions, ticket scams for music concerts or sporting events, or lonely-heart dating scams.
Culled - DailyMail
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