Elderly man loses €1,000 in a fake tech support scam
A case of fraud involving a so-called "tech support scam" has been reported to police.
A 73-year-old man from Steinbach-Hallenberg received a pop-up warning on his Windows PC claiming his account had been locked. To resolve the issue, he was instructed to call a provided service number. When he did, a man posing as a Microsoft employee answered—speaking broken German—and directed the victim to execute specific key combinations.
This gave the scammer remote access to the computer, allowing them to disable the antivirus software, among other actions. The fraudster then claimed there had been an unauthorized withdrawal via online banking. Under the pretense of reversing the transaction, they manipulated the victim into approving a payment via his mobile phone.
A total of €998 was debited from his account. The scammer then demanded the purchase of multiple €100 Apple gift cards, allegedly to extend PC protection services.
The victim refused and instead contacted the police. He also immediately froze his bank account.
Police warnings:
- Never grant remote access to your computer to unknown individuals
- Never share banking details or TAN codes with third parties, and never authorize unfamiliar transactions
- Never purchase gift cards at the request of supposed support staff
- If in doubt, end the call immediately and contact police or your bank
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