Scammers & Computers
Due to some very convincing scammers, costing some nice, trusting people money (stolen from their accounts and computer clean-up costs), we would like to make you aware of some things you can look out for, and also show you some ways you can protect yourselves from these unscrupulous people.
Below are three key tactics that scammers use. If you know them, you’ll be better equipped to avoid getting tricked out of your hard-earned money.
ONE – They STEAL TRUST.
Do you KNOW who you are dealing with? The key to a good scam is to impersonate someone else and exploit their trustworthiness. You may get an email from your bank and it looks like an email from your bank – it has the same font, style and icons. It would be easy now to trust the email because you think it’s from a trusted source. But is it from your bank?
Scammers also try this on the phone.
If you think they might be legit but want to be sure, what can you do?
PHONE: Ask for their name and tell them you will call back and then look up the number for that organization yourself. E.g. you get a call from the IRD but you aren’t sure it’s actually them. Ask for their full name and tell them you will ring back.
HOVER: hover your mouse over a link and you will see what address you will actually go to if you click on it. Scammers can use similar but not quite the same addresses e.g. instead of anz.co.nz/contacts they use amz.co.nz/contacts or anz.thebank.co.nz/contacts
EMAIL: If the email says something like “click here to fix the problem”, DO NOT click on the link. Instead, manually type in the web address yourself and look for the page they mention. This avoids them directing your click to a fake website.
TWO – FEAR TACTICS
If you read an email or have a phone call which tells you something very bad has happened to you then it may be a fear tactic. (cough, cough, not this email though! ߘ꠩ People who use fear are often trying to sell something. There is some good science around that fact that our focus narrows when we are afraid and it makes us unable to think clearly. Re-read that scary email, and this time try to look at it without the emotion and see what you think is going on. If it’s a phone call, give yourself a few minutes, ask them to call back in 5.
THREE – MONEY or ACCESS
Whatever story or fear tactic you might hear. Keep listening. It will come. At some point they will either ask for money (either a credit card or iTunes vouchers usually) or access to your computer. Once they ask for money or want to remotely access your computer it’s time to raise your alert level higher – there’s a very good chance this is a scam. Go back to point one – do you KNOW them?
You can read more here with this article from NetSafe https://www.netsafe.org.nz/scam-tips/
If you get an email that you think might be legit but aren’t sure. Feel free to call us ( 0800 349 669) or forward the email to us for our expert opinion (
The Team @ Computer Help NZ
If you have any questions call Sandie or Wayne
P.S. If you want to see a funny video about staying safe what this one by Consumer Protection https://youtu.be/onHmwmKI4Iw (or search for it just to be safe!)
P.P.S When was the last time you had the security on your computer checked (there are 4 key areas)?