Karen’s Fraud Story: Don’t Fix What’s Not Broken

Karen from Barnstead loves to cook and is always on the lookout for new recipes. One day, while surfing the web for a new addition to her cookbook, a pop-up came across her screen.

The pop-up informed her that she had a virus on her computer, and she needed to call the number provided to fix it. When Karen called the number, a ‘representative’ told her he needed to get a technician on the line because it was a very serious virus. She was put on hold for a brief time.

Once the technician got on the phone, he informed Karen he could fix her computer, but she would have to pay them in JCPenny gift cards. They would need five of them worth $100 each and they needed them in one hour. Karen, troubled, informed them that the nearest JCPenny was an hour away. The technician replied he would give her time to go get them. Karen got in her car and started to drive.

“Amazingly, I was so concerned about my laptop being compromised, that I honestly wasn’t thinking straight,” Karen recalls. “However, I did start to question how gift cards could be a form of payment.”

Once Karen got to the store, she started to buy the cards individually. She bought the first one successfully, but when she tried to purchase the others, the cashier stopped her and called the supervisor over. The supervisor then asked Karen what was buying the gift cards for. After explaining, the supervisor refused to sell them to her.

She let Karen know that this was a Computer Fix Scam and there was no virus on her computer. Thankfully, the supervisor knew the signs to look out for and successfully prevented the $500 theft of Karen’s hard-earned money.

“I consider myself an intelligent, well educated, professional woman who has had multiple careers in both the health care field, as well as the military. How could this have happened to me? Luckily for me, it was but a close call,” says Karen. “In retrospect I should have just contacted an electronics shop and had an actual person look at it. At the very least, if I had waited to talk to my husband or someone else, they may have picked up on the fact that something fishy was going on.”

Karen can look back now and see the red flags. She offers this advice:

“The scammers are most successful when they catch someone unawares and that person tries to navigate the situation by themselves, alone, without another point of view.”

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IF YOU CAN SPOT A SCAM, YOU CAN STOP A SCAM
No online IT desk or other such technician will ever ask you to pay in gift cards for tech help. Never trust pop-up ads that try to steal your personal information or get you to pay in gift cards. If you are ever in doubt, be sure to call a trusted technician service provider, or, click here to learn the red flags.