Police Officers Recover Woman’s $35K In Tech Support Scam But Recipient Is An ‘Unknowing Accomplice’

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Scammers – the first group of professionals to work from home before it became cool.

Whenever we come across an article about the latest scam, we always scoff at how easily victims fell for scammers’ ploys, thinking we’d never fall for it ourselves.

But just like villains in mindless action movies, scammers are getting more sophisticated every day.

Think you’d never fall for a scam? Think again.

Police Officers Recover Woman’s $35K In Tech Support Scam But Recipient Is An ‘Unwilling Accomplice’

When a man purporting to be a Microsoft technical support employee offered to help Lyena (not her real name) with a supposed IT issue, Lyena felt rather grateful.

But then he scammed her out of $35,000 and she didn’t feel so grateful anymore.

On 28 May, the 60-year-old educator got a pop-up message on her computer, which said her computer was at risk and urged her to seek help immediately, according to ST.

Lyena started panicking because her computer’s anti-virus software had just expired. Thinking a virus had infected her computer, she called the number provided in the pop-up message.

Big mistake.

Image: Tenor

Lyena said the man had introduced himself as a Microsoft employee and sounded very “professional”.

“He asked me to install UltraViewer, an application that would give him remote access to my computer so that he could find out what the problem was”, she said.

You can see where this is going.

In the course of their two-hour conversation, the scammer managed to convince Lyena that her computer had been hacked by eight people.

The ‘Microsoft employee’ even provided pictures of the hackers, Lyena said.

“He then told me that I had to give him my bank account details so he could protect my bank account from these hackers, which I stupidly did”.

The next morning, the 60-year-old received a call from her bank informing her that $35,000 of her money had been transferred into another bank account.

Image: Tenor

Lyena then put two and two together and realised she had been scammed. She immediately lodged a police report.

Stolen Money Fully Recovered

Fortunately for her, the police managed to recover $33,000 within three days and the remaining $2,000 soon after, according to ST.

According to Alan Kit, a senior investigation officer at the Commercial Affairs Department, the police immediately requested the banks to freeze the accounts when Lyena filed the report.

Then they retrieved the particulars of the beneficiary and went down to his house where they recovered $33,000 in cash.

Apparently, the beneficiary is a businessman who was led into believing that the $35,000 is payment for an order of surgical gloves from him.

He had reportedly withdrawn $33,000 to pay his glove supplier.

The remaining $2,000, which was frozen in the beneficiary’s bank account, was returned to Lyena following a court order.

Lyena was relieved to get her money back, but the incident still left her scarred.

“I would never have thought that I would become a victim of a scam and it was a really traumatic experience. I’ve since installed anti-virus software in both my phone and computer,” she said.

$15 Million Lost

Just like Lyena, many of us think we’re too smart to fall for a scam. But as we’ve seen time and time again, anyone can become a victim, and being complacent only increases your chances.

According to ST, scam victims lost a total of $15 million in tech scams in the first half of this year, up from $340,000 in the same period last year.

Kit advised the public not to install applications, type commands into the computer, or log in to online banking accounts on the advice on someone over the phone.

But how else can you tell if someone is trying to scam you?

Signs of a Scam

Scams come in various forms, and some are harder to spot than others.

Here are some signs of a traditional scam:

  • Use of urgent or threatening language – Be wary of emails with phrases such as ‘urgent action required’ or ‘your account will be terminated’. These criminals are trying to make you panic so you’ll provide confidential information. (Like convincing you that your computer has been infected by a virus, for instance.)
  • Promises of attractive rewards – Scammers will try to entice you by offering amazing deals or unbelievable prizes for doing a small thing, like clicking on a pop-up or completing an online survey to win a trip to Europe.
  • Requests for confidential information – Most organisations will never ask for your personal information such as NRIC, login credentials, and credit card details to be sent over the Internet. Never give out personal banking information and always call your bank to clarify if you receive such a call.

As for credit-for-sex scams and romance scams, the telltale signs are a little different:

  • Friend requests from strangers on Facebook, WeChat, and iAround, especially if they are offering escort, massage, or sexual services
  • They profess strong feelings for you quickly after befriending you and want to chat with you privately
  • Poorly written messages. Some might even refer to you by the wrong name
  • Repeated requests for favours or money

As Kit noted, incoming international calls are prefixed with a plus sign, so if you received a call from overseas that you weren’t expecting, you should probably be wary.

The best way to spot a scam is to understand that scammers always want something from you, whether it’s personal information or banking information.

Keep that in mind, and you’ll be fine and dandy.

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]