Caught out by convincing cold call computer scam

I WILL remember the 2018 Commonwealth Games for a totally different reason than most folk.

I am nearer 80 than 20 and yesterday afternoon I received a phone call on my house phone.

Only three people have my home phone number but I didn’t attach much attention when the lady, “Carol”, informed me she was from Telstra Technical Support.

I was told that my computer had been compromised as I hadn’t renewed a software update that came with the machine six months ago. I was told that my computer screen was about to go blank and programmes would be obliterated.

I asked her to verify whom she was which she did by relating certain information which only I knew (I thought).

I should have smelled a rat when she said the only remedy was to renew the software at a rate of $199 for a year or $299 for three years. Financially it was obviously cheaper for the three-year deal. I paid the money and checked my Visa account to discover that $399 had been taken. I checked with “Carol” who informed me for the first time that the figure was in US dollars.

A check with her “boss” agreed that she should have told us about the US dollar bill but he had checked the recording and she hadn’t mentioned it.

He would reprimand her next day and report back. Needless to say the phone has not rung. The money was due to be paid into the Bank of Bhutan but I went into the Commonwealth Bank and got the payment stopped and had our card cancelled.

Commbank will endeavour to retrieve our money but they informed me that this operation is very common.

If anybody cold calls, be warned, just put the phone down. These people are very convincing and certainly fooled me, which really wouldn’t be hard to do when it comes to computer technology.