Community Corner

Scam Alert: Police Warn Residents To Be Cautious Of Internet Scams

Police warn consumers protect your personal information, and don't allow remote access to your computer

LA PORTE, TX -- Police are warning residents to be on their guard against a number of scams that could compromise your personal or banking information.

One of those scams involves a possible fraudulent tech company, according to the La porte Police Department, who reported on their Facebook page about a company calling itself Premium Techie Support.

According to the La Porte Police, an area resident said a representative from Premium Techie Support logged into their computer remotely, and obtained their banking information, instead of resolving the computer problem as promised.

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According to the La Porte Police, there numerous complaints about the company, and they advise anyone to avoid calling the company for any technical support issue.

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While this is the latest, there are other scams and hoaxes also making the rounds.

One of those is the “can you hear me,” scam, which has been the subject of news stories in recent weeks.

The so-called phone scam involves a phone call and when someone answers the phone, the caller asked, “can you hear me?”

If the person answers “yes,” then their voice is recorded and can be used for any number of fraudulent transactions, or so they say.

While this so-called scam has been widely publicized, there is no real evidence anyone has been duped by this scam.

Still, there are others that still plague us, like:

  • The Nigerian Email scam: Which has been around since the early days of the internet. No, you’re not going to be a millionaire.
  • The Fake/Perfect Girlfriend Scam: usually originates from another country, with that so-called perfect match, asking for a little money. She’s not that into you, really.
  • The false “your computer is infected” scam: This is the scam where you’re hard at work, when the pop up message appears on your screen telling you your computer has a virus. You click on the button, and of course there’s a virus, they will happy to clean out, for a fee, of course. Scanned by a scammer.
  • The Craigslist scam: This one has been around a while. You list your couch on Craigslist selling for $200, and get a bit almost immediately. What luck! Not so fast. They offer to send a check well over the amount so you can ship it, and the difference back to them. When it’s all said and done, you’d be minus your old couch and the charges from your bank for the bogus check.

You can click on this link and find a list of scams still plaguing the internet.

Image: Shutterstock

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