Prince George’s County police say criminals posing as tech support workers are scamming people out of thousands of dollars.
Prince George’s County police received 22 reports of tech support scams so far this year, totaling more than $500,000 in losses.
“Any type of communication in essence is opening the door, and really they want to find people who they can, you know, maybe of diminished capacity, maybe of vulnerable situations, that they can then manipulate,” Lt. Joseph Bellino said.
In one case last month, a woman received a pop-up message on her computer saying she had a virus and needed to call the number on her screen, police said. From there, she spoke with multiple scammers posing as a tech support employee, a representative from her bank and a Social Security Administration worker. Then the group emailed her a fraudulent letter.
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“The victim then following the guidance of what she believed to be government officials, was told to withdraw in excess of $10,000 from her banking institution and then to meet with a representative from the Social Security Administration, who would then collect the funds,” Bellino said.
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A man picked up money from the victim’s address and drove off in a white Honda CRV, police said.
To avoid becoming a victim of such a scam, Prince George’s County police recommend:
- avoiding answering calls from unknown numbers
- never giving personal financial information to strangers
- calling software companies or antivirus companies directly with any issues
