Lucky escape for Carrick woman
Thursday, 26 January 2012
A CARRICKFERGUS woman has warned other residents in the town of an Internet scam which could end up costing them hundreds of pounds - and possibly more.
Noreen Montgomery of Unity Street was targeted last week, and told the Advertiser she was thankful of her son-in-law's intervention in warning her con-artists had hacked into her lap-top and were attempting to sell her 'anti-viruses'.
Noreen had ironically been having problems with her laptop and on contacting BT was awaiting a return call when the scammers struck.
She told us: "I had assumed that it was just BT calling back, the person on the phone had told me I had been having some problems with my laptop, and spoke with a thick Indian accent - as did the representative from BT - so I had no reason to think I could be the potential victim of a scam.
“Obviously they had no idea that I had been having problems with my computer, I'm sure they have been chancing their arm", Noreen said. The 'computer technician' was able to call up several screens on Noreen's laptop, telling her she had several 'viruses' and that he would be able to install anti-virus programmes with the repair work totalling £156.
It was then that alarm bells started ringing and while still speaking to the 'rep', contacted her daughter whose husband in turn told Noreen to hang up her mobile, and that she was being conned.
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