01/24/2018
Pete Wellborn, attorney and cyber expert, hopes these cautions will save us stress and worse as we go about business online and by phone during the holidays and all year. As Pete told us, we can't get away from them. Even he is being inundated with calls from criminals running these scams!
Here are his recommendations:
If you get a phone call or voicemail claiming to be from Microsoft, Windows Support, or some other computer-related company and informing you that your computer is infected or has some other problem, HANG UP (after any carefully-chosen stream of invectives you may choose to convey) or, if a message was left, DO NOT CALL BACK. NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY, ALL OF THESE CALLS ARE SCAMS, usually from criminal rings in Asia or Africa. The caller is actually trying: (1) to cause you to download harmful malware that will put your computer and your personal information at risk; and/or (2) to con you into making some bogus payment.
The same is true of ANY CALL in which the caller claims to be the IRS, a court, or some other government agency and demands immediate payment under threat of arrest, tax lien, etc. HANG-UP (OR DON'T CALL BACK, IF A VOICEMAIL WAS LEFT).
Finally, beware of ordering goods or shipping services over the Internet from a new or unknown entity or website in relation to which the seller/shipper accepts only MoneyGram, Western Union, or Walmart-to-Walmart Money Transfer. MOST OF THESE SELLERS ARE CRIMINAL RINGS - some with very slick, professional, "real" looking websites - working out of Cameroon or other African countries.
