"Sar53" How distressing that must be for you. I am sorry to hear this and do sympathise. I too, was scammed recently. For someone who is normally ultra-careful, it has made me very paranoid. It all happened so quickly. One afternoon, I was on the internet and clicked on a harmless-looking ad. Suddenly, a frightening notice in huge red letters, etc and a woman with an American accent repeating loudly "Your computer is infected with Trojan Horse virus", etc. It was accompanied by loud alarm bells ringing. There was a telephone number which the voice told me I had to ring to clear the virus. I just wanted the noise to go away. I immediately telephoned the number and a man with an Asian accent answered. He spoke good English. He seemed pleasant enough and said these things happened all the time and that I was not to worry as he often worked with Microsoft and would get rid of the virus but I had to follow his instructions to access my computer remotely. I became suspicious at that point but he was so calm and tried to put me at ease that I stupidly allowed him access to my computer. He said I was lucky to telephone as quickly as I did as Trojan went through files very quickly and would infect all my files. He then installed "Aweray Remote Software" and said before he cleaned the files I would have to pay £200 straightway using my debit card which (unfortunately) I did. I could see him going through my files remotely. It must have taken around 45 minutes/1 hour or so. I was in a terrible panic. Then he said he would email me a receipt. Then he was gone. He had got his money and another silly victim. The software was still on my laptop. When I received the receipt by email it was a badly written message confirming that I had authorised the payment, to clear the virus, etc., etc. I was just so glad that my laptop was working again but I worried about the app he left on my laptop. Then last Thursday this man telephoned telling me that his company was winding up and he needed to access my laptop to remove the software and that he would refund the £200. I felt immediately that something was not right and I told him that it was an inconvenient time and could he call back at 1pm. He wasn't happy about that but he had no choice. He rang 5 times at around 1pm but I did not answer. During that time I checked the Microsoft website for cyber scams/fraud and sure enough what the man had done and now trying to do again, was to gain access to my laptop, retrieve his software, infect the laptop and then demand money was the exact trick used by some scammers on their Scammers' page. I was shocked that I had fallen victim to this scam and felt violated and physically sick. I telephoned my bank immediately and spoke to someone in the Fraud/Scam department. I was told that these scammers were highly trained, did their research and targeted elderly, vulnerable women especially. How do they get our details? Scary. He told me to uninstall the software asap and block the telephone number on my mobile. Annoyingly, the bank, of course, had to cancel my debit card and change my online bank details!! It just takes a second of distraction for something like this to happen. So please all be extra careful and vigilant.
