Be Alert – Don’t Get Scammed

Be Alert – Don’t Get Scammed

Police would like to have the following information released to the public, to ensure that there are less victims created by scammers. Especially in these times of financial hardship, and being so close to Christmas which may encourage people to go along and try to obtain the windfall as promised.

Ø Police are receiving an increasing number of calls from members of the public who have been contacted by "scammers" trying to con them out of their hard earned money.

Ø Police would like to remind people to be extra vigilant about providing their personal details over the phone or by email to anyone that can not supply proof that they are who they claim to be.

Ø The callers can sound very genuine, and usually offer incentives that will encourage people to provide the details that want. Details requested can include bank account numbers, credit card numbers and Pin numbers.

Ø Some of the recent scams include, emails claiming to be from Inland Revenue, trying contact you for a refund, but then asking for personal information to confirm your identity and then requiring the victim to pay $199 to process the claim, which never arrives.

Ø scammers contacting victims by telephone claiming to be calling to fix a computer virus, then offering to sell items to fix the problem or asking for personal details, and then directing the victim to a website that allows the scammer to remotely access their pc and acquire bank logins and passwords.

I refer to

http://www.microsoft.com/Australia/presspass/post/Microsoft-issues-warning-on-phone-scam where a similar scheme was operating in Australia earlier this year.

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