Computer Scams
Phone scams
Phone scams can apply to anybody, no one is safe. They will call you in disguise of somebody else and will ask for your personal details or card details. Never disclose: your four digit PIN, your full password or online banking codes, personal details unless you are 100% you know the person you are talking to.
Another type of phone scam you must be careful of is when the fraudsters will attempt to persuade you to transfer money straight into another account (usually their own).
A clever fraudster will lure you into hanging up then to call your bank up to check if the call is legit however they will stay on the line and disguise themselves as your bank and will play a dialling tone to do so. To make sure this does not happen to you must remember that a bank will never ask you to take these actions.
Email scams
Email scams are most common when you are sent a convincing email from a fraudster in disguise of your bank. They often ask you to insert your bank details into the email or by luring you into clicking on a link.
Another common email scam is a lottery/award scam; these scams claim to be from foreign countries saying you have won a cash sum or lottery. Never reply. They again will ask you for your bank details then later will steal your money from your bank account.
Security scams usually claim that you’re PC or bank account has been compromised, they will then ask for a price to fix the problem. If you then fall for this you could be liable for further scams and they will steal more money from your bank account, these repeated deductions can continue for a long period time. If you haven’t been contacted before and somebody is asking for a payment this again is probably a scam. Scams can range from people stealing the identity of recognisable software companies and even to Action Fraud.
If you are asked to make a payment that you are not sure about contact the company to make sure it is not a scam after all it is better being safe than sorry.
Finally there are investment scams. Investment scams are designed to influence you into paying a lump sum for a chance of high profits. These fraudsters will offer rare and high valued goods or even properties by making themselves sound really attractive and will exaggerate how low the fee you are paying to give you a massive profit, the reality is you will lose all the money you put into it and be left empty handed.
Pop up scams
Pop up scams occur with a message such as ‘Your system has been infected!’ Many people receive pop ups just like this and appear usually when you have opened an attachment or even visited a website which is designed to lure you into giving money to fix the issue or infects your PC with malware and other viruses. Scammers will be experienced in what they do so they can be very deceiving and using the names of big companies that are already in the computer software industry to gain trust. Pop ups will create warning messages and alerts that are already existing by computer security software. When your PC has been infected the fraudsters will obtain personal details then they will use your identity and sell it to other criminals.
However, even though the majority of these pop ups will be scams on the odd occasion you may receive an actual virus warning.
Ways to locate and prevent yourself from clicking pop ups include:
Unusual phrased English language.
The pop up message is not specifically to a recipient and is sent to ‘account holder’ or a similar title.
If your PC has dramatically slowed down, you have received new desktop icons or your wallpaper has changed the chances are your PC had already been infected.
Protecting yourself from future pop ups is fairly simple in terms of keeping your firewall updated and downloading upgraded anti-spyware and anti-virus software.
If you feel you are at risk of Pop up scams call Birmingham Computer Repairs today on 0121 673 2579 and we will get a fully qualified engineer out to you today and make sure you are no longer at risk. And remember we believe in a
NO FIX = NO FEE policy