Online scammers bombard woman for months, fleece her of thousands
A scam victim was initially given a small refund – before being coerced to pay back thousands of dollars, police say.
Online scammers posing as a telecommunications provider bombarded a woman with phone calls over a number of months before fleecing her of thousands of dollars, SA Police say.
Hills Fleurieu Police are investigating the incident and urging people to be wary when asked by unknown people to hand over money via online bank transfers and other non-secure payment methods.
“Over the past few months a female victim received constant phone calls from people claiming to be from a telco provider stating her internet had been hacked,” a police spokesman said.
“They requested permission to log on her computer to address the issue, and told her the modem she had previously purchased was faulty and they would refund the purchase cost.”
The spokesman said the victim then sent an email to an unidentified location and received a small refund.
However, the woman later received a receipt that indicated she had been overpaid by thousands of dollars.
“Soon after she was contacted by the (allegedly fraudulent) telco requesting the overpayment be repaid,” the spokesman said.
Last week, the victim electronically transferred the money to the fraudulent company.
She was then contacted on the following two days by the scammers, advising that the money had not been received so she transferred two more large sums.
“Police warn the community that scammers will often ask you to use non-secure payment methods such as online bank transfers,” the spokesman said.
For more information on scams and how to avoid them, visit police.sa.gov.au/scams or scamwatch.gov.au.