Police Reminds Tells Residents to Watch Out for Microsoft Support Scam After Senior Falls Victim

From Hingham Police

A 79 year old woman visiting relatives in Hingham fell victim to the scam known as the “Microsoft Support Scam” and provided her personal banking information. She also lost money.

On September 19, a Hingham resident reported that her mother, who was visiting from Florida, received a call on her cell phone earlier that morning. The caller said he was from a company called Windows PC Services and was selling anti-hacking kits for computers.

The woman allowed the caller to remotely access her computer. She believed that “software was being loaded onto her computer”. She also provided the caller with her personal account information including her bank account number and bank routing number. The caller said he will bill her only “$169.99 for a five year service plan”.

This scam also compromised the bank information as well as other financial and personal data stored on her computer (including passwords, account numbers).

Officers advised her to contact her bank immediately, credit card companies, the major credit bureaus as well as have her computer examined by a company.

As a reminder, here’s a quote from the official Microsoft website on scams: “Neither Microsoft nor our partners make unsolicited phone calls (also known as cold calls) to charge you for computer security or software fixes.”