Fraud Prevention Tip

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and Canada’s banks are participating in this international effort to help consumers protect themselves and their computers from cyber crime.

The Internet has made it easier than ever to conduct business and manage our finances with greater speed, efficiency and convenience. Unfortunately, criminals also use the Internet to try to gain access to personal information, such as passwords, personal banking and credit card details and social insurance numbers. Once the criminals have obtained this information, it can be used or sold to others to make fraudulent transactions.

Banks and other businesses have sophisticated security systems in place to protect your personal and financial information and provide you with a safe online environment. Criminals know these strong protections are very difficult to overcome, so they try to get your confidential information directly from you. To avoid becoming a victim, it is important to understand what kinds of scams are out there and how you can protect your home computer and your personal information. The newest scam involves a bogus phone call offering you technical support regarding a virus on your computer.

How does this tech support scam work?

Criminals will call you on the phone and claim to be from a large and recognizable software company, such as Microsoft. They will then attempt to gain your trust by warning you about a virus on your computer and offering to help you locate and delete the virus and then install anti-virus software.

Based on some recent media reports, the callers can be very convincing and may attempt to dupe you into believing the call is legitimate by asking you to open a program called "Windows Event Viewer" which appears to be a list of errors. You’ll be told to download a program that will solve the problem but the program you download will actually give the criminal remote control over your computer – thereby allowing them to access sensitive personal and financial information.

How to protect yourself from telephone tech support scams

There are ways to protect yourself from this type of phone scam.

Microsoft has posted information on its website noting that it would never make this kind of tech support call so if you receive a call, immediately hang up.
Be suspicious of anyone trying to sell you a subscription over the phone for a tech support service.
Never give control of your computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team with whom you are already a customer

For more fraud prevention tips from the Canadian Bankers Association or to sign up to receive new tips by e-mail please visit the Fraud and Security section of the Canadian Bankers Association website.