http://www.fltimes.com/news/ontario-cou ... 5490d.htmlOntario County Sheriff's Office warns of growing scam
Finger Lakes Times 21 hrs ago 0
HOPEWELL — The Ontario County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a scam involving people gaining access to home computers.
The sheriff’s office said the scam works something like this:
An individual or individuals from Geek America or another computer service organization will call residents and say they need to refund them money for various reasons. The suspects ask for a person’s router information, allowing them to gain access to his or her home computer.
The suspect gains access to a person’s banking information or institution and tells the victim a deposit was made in excess of what was supposed to be refunded. The suspect then asks the victim to remove the excess amount and use it to purchase Google Play cards, Walmart gift cards or some other form of transaction medium, then provide the numbers on the back of those cards.
Since the excess amount never was in a person’s bank account, they are actually spending their own money to perpetuate the scam.
The sheriff’s office warns residents to refrain from providing routing or banking information to anyone they don’t know and trust, and to simply hang up on any caller insisting you are owed money you know nothing about.
Anyone who thinks they have been contacted by any scammer should call the sheriff’s office at (585) 394-4560 or 1-800-394-4560.
