Beware Phone Fraud | Eastern North Carolina Now

    On December 23, 2012, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office received an attempted fraud report from a Chocowinity resident. The resident reported that she received a phone call from a male with a heavy Indian accent. The subject stated that he was an employee with "IT Solutions" in New York. He told the resident that she had a virus on her computer and that he could fix her problem if she paid $100.00. The resident had not contacted IT Solutions, a real company, prior to receiving the call.

    The resident ended the call and later spoke with her bank to check for fraudulent activity on her accounts. The bank gave the victim information on a similar scam where the caller stated they are an employee of "Microsoft."

    Residents should be wary of any emails, text messages, or phone calls that offer unsolicited services. Scammers frequently try to take advantage of the elderly and people with a limited knowledge of computer systems. Scammers will often use real business names and icons to help legitimize their illegal activities. Some may attempt to gain remote access to your computer in order to install malicious software or steal personal information. Others may try to get you to use a checking account number or credit card number to pay for fraudulent services.

    You can avoid many of these scams by only dealing with businesses that you are familiar with and that you contact personally. Delete any emails that you did not request that ask for you to confirm financial information or passwords. Opening these emails and any links they contain may expose your computer to viruses and/or malicious software. When in doubt about an email or call, you should contact the origin company at a number that you locate as opposed to a number that the caller may give you. And always remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true.