Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe today issued an urgent warning to Albury residents to avoid a scam where telephone callers seek payment to clear non-existent viruses from personal computers.

Mr Stowe said Fair Trading had received reports this week from residents in Albury about the scam, with the scammers claiming to work for Microsoft.

“These scams are coming from overseas and people in Albury should just hang up when they get these calls,” he said. “The scam is not new but the techniques are the same. Scams abound and Fair Trading is constantly receiving scam reports from around the state.

Last month Fair Trading issued scam warnings to Hunter and Western NSW residents who were being targeted by similar scams.

Mr Stowe said 171 scam reports were received by NSW Fair Trading in July.

“So far, there have been more than 1,800 scam reports to Fair Trading this year,” he said.

The top three current scams account for nearly three-quarters of scams reported in July 2011:

• Get-rich quick schemes involving overseas lotteries (34%)
• Refunds on bank and financial institutions over-charged fees (23%)
• Computer-related scams (15%)

The average scam amount was $626 and the largest was $9,000. NSW Fair Trading believes about one in ten consumers who report scams to Fair Trading have lost money to scammers.

Re the current Albury scam: Scammers call out of the blue and tell consumers they have 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. If you say yes, they will run a bogus scan that shows up a fake virus.

Mr Stowe said scammers trade in deception and he urged people to warn their family members, friends and neighbours to be scam smart.

For more information go to the Scams page on the Fair Trading website or  www.scamwatch.gov.au.

Back to Media releases