Barrow Resident Scammed over the Phone

On Oct. 11, 2011, a deputy with the was dispatched to a Dale Drive resident in reference to a report of fraud.

The resident told the deputy she had received a phone call Oct. 10 from a man who identified himself as an employee of the Microsoft Service Center and that her computer had sent an error message to the center and he had been trying to contact her for "a while".

The complainant said the man told her she had several viruses on her computer. Unable to understand his accent, the resident asked to speak to another employee and was transferred to a supervisor, who accessed her IP address. The complainant said the supervisor was evasive about how much it would cost to remove the viruses, at first saying $20 then later upping the cost to $25.

The complainant said the supervisor created a Western Union account for the money transfer and upon obtaining her bank account information attempted to charge her on four different occasions. The first was a charge for $442, the second for $100, the third for $50 and the fourth and final charge for $20.

The complainant said she was able to obtain the name for which the first money order was made out to but Western Union refused to provide names for the subsequent charges. She said she realized she was being scammed and canceled her bank cards. Her bank advised her no money had been taken from her account at that time but that international withdrawals would not show up immediately. She was advised to monitor her account closely.

Have you been the victim of a scam recently? Tell us in comments.