DUNWOODY, Ga. — A Dunwoody woman lost nearly $200,000 because of a computer popup alert.
Now, police want you to be on the look out for them to protect your bank accounts.
Alerts that pop up on computers across the United States are telling people their “computer has been locked up” and tell them to call a support line for help.
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But making that call could put you at risk of losing money, sometimes a lot of money.
That’s exactly what happened to a Dunwoody woman in December when she was scammed out of about $200,000.
Sgt. Michael Cheeks at the Dunwoody Police Department said that when the woman called the number, she thought she was calling Microsoft support. She was told her bank account had been compromised.
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“They are very good,” Cheeks told Channel 2’s Karyn Greer. “They just catch people off guard and they are very good at making things seem real, making things seem legitimate that are not real at all.”
She was convinced to withdraw $25,000 and use it to buy Bitcoin, then wire nearly $280,000 for gold bars, which she then handed to a man who told her he was a federal agent.
“In the years that I’ve done this, that’s the first time I’ve seen this,” Cheeks told Channel 2 Action News.
According to a police report, several questions on the paperwork signed by the bank’s manager should have raised alarms that this was not a legitimate transaction.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Fifth Third Bank and were told they are investigating and cannot comment, saying in a statement that they take the security of their customers’ accounts and confidential information very seriously.
Cyber threat researcher Willis McDonald said the crooks bank on fear.
“It’s a psychological thing. And they know that if they can create urgency and they can create just a small bit of panic in you,” McDonald said. “They can turn that into causing you to take action and take the action they want.”
The woman who was a victim of the gold and cryptocurrency incident filed a fraud case with Fifth Third Bank, where the transaction took place, but was told there was nothing they could do to help and said she needed to file a police report.
While alerts like the one she got look and feel real, “Most of the time, if you can, you know, think about taking that pause before you take action. That will stop you from being a victim, of really many types of scams,” Cheeks said.
It’s important to remember that companies like Microsoft will never contact you with a pop up and they aren’t going to ask you for money.
“They’re not going to ask you to call a number to get something fixed,” McDonald said.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, schemes like this can come from a virus on your computer or an infected website. If you get one of these pop ups, do not call the number.
Instead, reach out to your computer’s manufacturer directly.
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