A RESIDENT is urging others not to fall victim to a phone scam after he was targeted by fraudsters.

Tony Misun, from Weymouth, said he was called by a person claiming to be from Microsoft who said they had received an error message from his computer and needed to fix the problem.

He said he is concerned that older residents in the town might be convinced by the lies.

Teacher Mr Misun said that when he questioned the caller, they became ‘very angry’.

He has reported the incident to Action Fraud, which says scams of this nature are common and has asked residents to be on their guard. Mr Misun said: “It’s quite concerning because there are a lot of elderly people in the area who might not realise this is a scam.

“Windows will never call you. The error messages this person was trying to tell me needed fixing are the harmless standard messages that come up.

“The scammers either try to charge you money to ‘fix’ the problem or ask you to go to a website and enter a code, which gives them remote access to your PC.

“This means they can get hold of personal information that you might have stored on there.”

As reported in the Echo, a number of phone and bank scams have hit residents recently.

Earlier this month, a man in his 80s from the Chapelhay area was conned in to handing over £26,000 to a fraudster impersonating a police officer.

In another case a couple from Westham handed over £12,000.

Police are still appealing for information about these two thefts.

Common scams that involve computer fraud are phone calls from a bogus ‘Microsoft Tech Support’ technician, unsolicited emails with security updates, being asked for credit card information to ‘validate’ Windows and the victim being told they have won the ‘Microsoft lottery’.

A spokesman for Action Fraud said: “We call it Computer Software Service fraud. Computer firms do not make unsolicited phone calls to help you fix your computer. Fraudsters make these phone calls to try to steal from you and damage your computer. Treat all unsolicited phone calls with scepticism and don’t give out any personal information.”

  • Anyone with information should call Action Fraud on 03001232040