OAP defrauded out of hundreds of pounds by crooks posing as PC repair men

CROOKS defrauded a woman out of hundreds of pounds after posing as computer repair men.

They managed to take remote control of her laptop after she clicked on an advert saying she was at risk from hackers.

Trusting Susan Hamilton, 66, paid £400 in total to the so-called repair people.

They spent four days rummaging around trying to find further sensitive material they could use to rob her, police believe.

They are probing the worrying incident and are warning others to be wary in case they too are targeted.

Susan said: “Getting defrauded out of £400 is a lot to me. I’m a pensioner so I don’t have a lot.

“I got frightened. I thought I was going to lose all my money. They seemed so plausible. It’s like you’ve been burgled.”

Susan, who lives with daughter Gwen, 45, in a council house in Falkirk said the scam has hit them hard as they are also dealing with a cancer diagnosis for Gwen.

“Gwen has terminal brain cancer,” said Susan. “Her condition is deteriorating. It might not be long before she is in a wheelchair.

“She’s been so frightened by what’s going on, she’s been scared to go online.”

Susan’s problems started when a pop-up appeared on her laptop stating her computer was being hacked and asking her to call a number to tackle the issue.

She did this and was told by the people she called that they could fix her computer remotely after she paid them £170.

Over the next three or four days the “company” rifled through her computer day and night, apparently fixing it. At the end of this period she was told her computer was fixed.

However, when using it the next day another pop-up appeared purporting to be from Microsoft and asking her to call another number.

She called and explained what had happened and was told the first company were scammers.

The second company said they also needed access to her computer remotely to fix any problems caused by the first group and charged her £216.

Police are now investigating both “companies” involved.

Susan’s story comes at a time there has been a surge in fraud fuelled by conmen posing as engineers for technology firms such as Apple and Microsoft.

The number of offences reported rose by more than 100% last year to almost 22,000.

A spokesperson from Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud, said anyone who feels they have been targeted by a similar scam should get their computer checked “for any additional programmes or software that may have been installed” by fraudsters.

A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: “These callers are often very convincing and we would advise residents to be cautious when receiving these types of approaches.”

Mandy Haeburn-Little, (pictured)director of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, added: “It’s sickening when we hear examples like this of honest people being cheated by unscrupulous scammers.

“Scammers like these have no interest in where their money comes from and have absolutely no concern for the individuals or the harm they are causing.

“The important thing is to always remember that no reputable company is going to ask for your password, credit card, or other personal information by email or phone.”