Scammer overcomes suspicions
A couple say they made a ‘‘silly decision’’ to trust a cold-caller who scammed them out of a significant amount of money.
Timaru pensioners Elizabeth and Stewart Clarkson were duped by a man who said he was calling about their Spark account.
He told them he needed access to their computer to install software, necessary because their computer had been hacked.
Elizabeth said she was sceptical about the legitimacy of the call.
However after handing over control of her laptop, she saw something that changed her mind.
‘‘A Spark logo came up and that made me think: oh, OK, it is fine because there’s a Spark logo there.’’
The man claimed her computer had been hacked multiple times.
‘‘To me it sounded as if we really were having a problem,’’ Elizabeth said.
‘‘He said they would put on new software that would secure everything. To me it looked as if technicians were doing something with the screen.’’
Stewart said the man even pretended to ‘‘consult his technician’’ during the call.
The man originally said he would charge a $15 fee.
Elizabeth initially told the scammer she would pay the bill through her Spark account.
However, he told her that as he was operating through a ‘‘different department’’ he would need another form of payment.
‘‘He asked for the bankcard numbers, I said: ‘no, we don’t actually use our bankcard, I only have a credit card and that’s for emergencies if we are travelling’.’’
Elizabeth then said she made the ‘‘stupid’’ mistake to give the scammer her husband’s card details. She knew something was up when the logo of Western Union, a money transfer service, flashed up on the screen with a dollar figure attached to it.
When she confronted him about that, the man told her Spark had to pay for the software, however she would be reimbursed.
However, at the request from the scammer to withdraw $2000 from her Kiwibank account and transfer it through Western Union to an address in China, Elizabeth hung up the phone.
She immediately rang Spark, who confirmed the call was not connected to them.
The couple then raised a dispute over the payment with Kiwibank, and cancelled the cards.
Stewart said they would ‘‘hopefully’’ get the money back, and had contacted police.