Try as they might, Duncan’s Gary Mottle won’t take the scammers’ bait.
“I have been getting a lot of phone calls from people claiming to be from Microsoft wanting to repair my faulty PC,” he reported last week.
But Mottle wasn’t biting.
“I used to work in tech and can spot these scams a mile off,” he said.
The calls average twice a month on his land line but have been increasing in frequency.
“If I am getting these calls, so are others,” he said.
Contact with the local police yielded no results, save for the recommendation to call the fraud centre in Toronto. But that was the end of the line.
“[They] don’t even do anything with the info you give them,” Mottle explained. “They don’t investigate. That said, people need to be warned.”
Mottle believed calling the newspaper was “probably a waste of time too, but it is my feeble attempt at trying to warn people about these scams.”
Message heard, Mr. Mottle, and readers, you’ve been warned.
According to Microsoft’s Tech Support Scams page, as arrived at through a link from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, “Microsoft does not send unsolicited email messages or make unsolicited phone calls to request for personal or financial information, or fix your computer.”
If you suspect you’ve been a victim of a scam, gather all the information you can and contact the local police to alert them of the scams targeting residents in their jurisdiction. After that, call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or through the Fraud Reporting System.
Next, let the bank and credit card companies know to flag your accounts.
For more information visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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