Elderly woman‘s warning after dodging shady phone scam on Tweed Coast

An elderly Tweed Coast resident says “bloody mongrels” tried to scam her over the phone. She was too clever to fall for the scammers’ tricks, but was concerned others might fall prey.

AN ELDERLY Banora Point resident says “bloody mongrels” tried to scam her over the phone.

The 89-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, was too clever to fall for the scammers’ tricks, but was concerned others might fall prey.

She received a phone call on May 7 which played a recorded message.

It warned the woman’s phone would be disconnected and asked her for computer access via the internet to stop this happening.

“It said ‘your phone will be disconnected this afternoon due to suspicious circumstances, but your internet will be alright and you can use that’, but I don’t have internet. That sort of thing. I just didn’t say anything,” she said.

“I was quite upset. At first I thought, ‘please don’t turn my phone off, my bill is already paid’.

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“Luckily I’ve still got the marbles.”

The Tweed region resident said she thought to run the call by a friend, who told her it was a scam.

“It really took me by surprise. Maybe I can help someone else by warning them,” she said.

The woman said she previously made eight calls to a friend which were missed as their device was switched off.

“When these people said ‘suspicious calls’ I thought it was because I rang these friends so many times,” she said.

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Fortunately, the woman still felt the call was strange and hung up.

This type of scam is often referred to as a remote access scam or tech support phone scam.

Callers pretend to be offering technical support to gain access to computers, potentially leading to financial repercussions or identity theft.

New South Wales Police Force advises scams can be reported to local police stations, or online through the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN).

Never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer and never give personal or banking details out over the phone unless you’re speaking to a trusted source.