“It sounds awful, but my advice is not to trust anyone, on the phone or email” said Matthew Simpson of Matt’ll Fix IT. I was talking to him about one of his customers who had nearly fallen victim recently to a very plausible scammer, purporting to be from BT, as reported in Rye News. “With computer-generated call numbers, they are getting increasingly sophisticated and can target the most vulnerable people.
“99% of scams emanate from the Indian subcontinent in my experience,” he said. “It started in Kolkata with an IT expert who ‘turned to the dark side.’ Mind you, I feel the banks could do more to protect their customers. They should operate an automatic security check on unusual transfers of any size.
“I hate to see the distress it causes to my clients. It sometimes takes me three or four hours to wipe the computer clean and re-install the software programmes in the configuration which the customer is used to, will recognise and be able to navigate.
“Scamming won’t go away, only get worse. The only thing is for people to learn greater awareness.”
Matt can be contacted on 07983 657560.
Image Credits: Jean Christophe , Matt'll FixIT .