A HEALESVILLE woman is warning seniors to take care for phone calls allegedly from phone companies, after a near miss with scammers last month.
Margaret Simmonds was one of many seniors who was forced to change their phone and internet services last month, after company One Seniors went into administration.
Ms Simmonds said that she recently received two calls from people claiming to be from Telstra’s Technical Services Division, saying that her computer had been hacked.
The caller claimed that Ms Simmonds’ computer was being used to hack other people’s bank accounts, and wanted her to change her IP address, for “security”.
“They claimed to want to put security on the computer that would last forever,” she said.
This is where Ms Simmonds said the alarm bells started ringing, and she became suspicious of her alleged helpers – when she asked for the details to be put into a letter, the caller hung up without asking for her details.
After looking online, Ms Simmonds sound many other people who had experienced the exact same type of call, and wanted to warn others to be wary of the callers.
A Telstra spokesperson confirmed that these calls are scammers attempting to access customer’s computers in order to steal their identity and banking details.
Typically, the scammers will call, pretending to be from Telstra or another organisation, such as Microsoft, and claim that the victim will need to pay for technical support for a problem on their computer.
Only, the problem doesn’t exist, and the caller will attempt to gain control of the computer or ask for details such as bank account or credit card numbers.
“Customers need to be prepared for scam callers and the advice we give them is to hand up immediately if they’re not sure who is on the other end of the phone,” the spokesperson said.
Residents are being urged to not give control of their computer to anyone making an unsolicited call, and to hang up if they are suspicious of a caller’s identity.
The Telstra spokesperson said that, because these calls often originate from overseas, they are hard to identify and prosecute, and warned residents to be prepared and sceptical of unsolicited calls.
However, any scam calls can be reported to SCAMwatch at www.scamwatch.gov.au or to the company the callers may have been impersonating.
Loaded
A TEENAGER will be fronting court after being caught driving an overloaded, un-roadworthy car in Coldstream last weekend.
Yarra Ranges Highway Patrol detected the 19-year-old Fitzroy North man driving along the Maroondah Highway in Coldstream at about 5pm on Saturday 7 June. The driver was stopped for a random breath test, and failed the preliminary test, but when police requested that he go back to the police station for a follow up, he refused.
The car, a ute, was also overloaded, with three men in the two car seats, and was issued a defect notice for two bald rear tyres.
The driver will be summonsed to Ringwood Magistrates’ Court with refusing to accompany police for a breath test, driving without a rear P-plate, use of an un-roadworthy vehicle and for carrying a passenger occupying the same seat as another.
