Watch for the scams

Eldon woman almost gets scammed after pop-up ad appears on her computer

An Eldon woman almost got scammed out of hundreds of dollars recently when a security alert appeared across her computer screen.

Stanley Nicholson spoke to The Guardian about it on Tuesday, hoping that his wife, Wendy’s, experience will serve as a warning for others.

“I was away a week ago Thursday; I was up to Souris and on my way home when Wendy phoned me on my cellphone and she said ‘I need your Visa number right now’,’’ Nicholson said. “I said ‘I’m almost home; I’ll be home in (a few) minutes. She said ‘Well, that’s not good enough. I need it now’. And she was in a real panic. She’s not the one to be extravagant about that stuff (and) she isn’t one to waste money or anything like that.’’

The pop-up security ad came on and prompted Wendy to call a number. She called it and spoke to someone who told her the computer would be fixed if she provided a credit card number.

“They said they needed a credit card number and she said ‘I haven’t got one but I have a debit card number’ and, my God, she gave them that. Of course, it didn’t work for (the scammer).’’

Nicholson said the man Wendy was talking to told her it was going to cost US$300 to fix the computer, but Stanley knew once they had a credit card number it was likely going to be much more.

“When I came in the door she was on the phone with them. I said to her ‘This is a scam, hang up the phone’. I took the phone right out of her hand and hung up and they phoned right back. The phone rang almost

instantly.’’

The man Nicholson was travelling back from Souris with knows computers and had it cleaned of all viruses. Wendy went to the bank the next day and got a new debit card. No money was missing. Nicholson said if this is happening to his wife, it’s happening to others.

“My concern is that how many people are getting scammed like this. People need to hear this (story) because it’s happening every day.’’

RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Baillie, said it’s an all-too-common problem. Baillie said police are investigating a complaint where a woman was scammed at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday after she thought she had purchased a couch off someone on Facebook.

Earlier in the day, someone tried to scam a man in Vernon River. Scary part of that call was the scammer even had the man’s social insurance number.