Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe today issued an urgent warning to western NSW residents to be on the look out for scams where telephone callers offer to reimburse overcharged bank fees or seek payment to clear non-existent viruses from personal computers.

Mr Stowe said Fair Trading has recently received reports from Forbes residents that have been targeted by these scams.

“I am urging affected people in the Western area to report the scam by calling NSW Fair Trading on 13 32 20,” he said.

Mr Stowe said these scams are not new to the authorities and similar scams had been targeting consumers across the state for some time.

“Anyone who receives calls offering these services or products should hang up and under no circumstances provide any personal or financial details or make any payment,” he said.

“Legitimate banks and organisations will not contact you asking for personal information.”

Mr Stowe said with the bank refund scam, callers state they are ‘reclaim experts’ working for a bank or a government authority to recover overpaid bank fees.

“They ask for bank account details or confirmation of details and appear to have a lot of personal information about the people they are calling, including dates of birth, who people bank with and also, in some cases, account types and some numbers,” he said.

Mr Stowe said intended victims of the computer scam often receive a call out of the blue claiming there is a problem with their personal computer.

“The caller may claim to be from a large computer company or legitimate technical service provider and will request remote access to your computer and if you say yes will run a bogus scan that shows up a fake virus,” he said.

“Scammers usually played on their victims’ lack of technical knowledge and will then try to pressure their victim into buying unnecessary software or a service to fix the computer.”

Mr Stowe said scammers traded in deception and he urged people to warn their family members, friends and neighbours to be extra vigilant about scams.

“Scammers will lie, intimidate and baffle to get what they want – your money, your identity and ultimately your self respect,” he said.

“If you receive a suspicious phone call, hang up and then contact the organisations directly by telephone to confirm authenticity or go to the official website and look for information there.”

For more information visit the Fair Trading website or go to www.scamwatch.gov.au

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