Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato and Director Stephen Scaturro of the Ocean County Department of Consumer Affairs today warned county residents of the newest computer scam to make its’ rounds. Residents are receiving phone calls from cyber scam artists designed to trick unsuspecting victims into giving the con artist caller full access to their computer content, making it easy for the scammer to commit identity fraud.

Recently the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office has received several calls from county residents explaining details of the rouse. The victim receives a phone call from a person who states they are a technician working for Microsoft. The technician advises the victim that their computer has sent notifications to Microsoft letting Microsoft know it has a virus. They direct the person to a website where they claim the issue will be corrected. Most of the victims are directed to Ammyy.com, which is free legitimate remote control software. If the victim complies this allows the suspect to take remote control of the victim’s computer. Once the suspect takes control of the computer, they pretend to be searching for the falsely reported computer virus. After a while they tell the person they have corrected the problem and request credit card information.

The next thing the Ocean County High Tech Crime Unit has found, is the caller will tell the victim the first credit card isn’t going through and request one or two more. While this is going on the suspect is also stealing computer files and documents. Once they hang up the phone, the suspect will pass the credit card information onto buyers who shop online and have the products shipped overseas. Beyond the thefts, once the cyber-criminal has infiltrated your computer, the victim is forced to bring their computer to a repair store to have the intruders access resolved, causing unnecessary expense, inconvenience and loss of use of the personal computer.

The Ocean County Prosecutor and Ocean County Office of Consumer Affairs advise citizens that Microsoft would never conduct random computer scans. Never give an unknown caller passcodes or any computer access. Any questions about this latest scam can be reported to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, High Tech Crimes Unit, 732-929-2027. For further tips on how to avoid computer scams call the Ocean County Department of Consumer Affairs at 732-929-2105. [TLS]