Public told to beware of calls from computer scammers

Police are warning the public about a scam on Oahu in which telephone callers claiming to be Microsoft employees offer to help fix computer viruses.

The scam, which is detailed on the Internet rumor-busting site Snopes.com, has been around since at least 2009 but was brought to the attention of police criminal investigators by an Oahu resident victimized recently.

Under the scheme, a person pretending to be a Microsoft technical support staff person contacts an IBM-compatible personal computer owner.

The scammer falsely claims to have been monitoring the machine and to have found viruses, police said.

The caller then offers to fix the problem remotely and asks for a credit card number, police said.

After giving the scammer a credit card number, the computer owner is then asked to go through a serious of steps that ends up with the scammer actually gaining remote access to the unsuspecting victim’s computer, as well to the files and programs in it, police said.

The scammers typically use pay phones, disposable or stolen cellular phones, or a program that masks their points of origin, police said.

On the Snopes site, Microsoft issued an official statement, stressing that the company does not make unsolicited telephone calls to PC owners to inform them there is something wrong with their computers.

Computer owners who fall victim are advised to disconnect their computers from their outlets, have their computers examined by a trusted expert and call 911 to file a police report, police said.