Crime & Safety

Scammed! Caledonia Residents Fall Prey to New Computer Fraud

Callers tell local women their computers have a virus and offer to fix it — for a price.

Caledonia police are warning the public about a new computer scam.

The scam involves a company calling to tell you that your computer isn’t working properly, promises to fix your computer, and charges you for the service, but they never fix it.

Two Caledonia residents have fallen victim to the scam.

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According to Caledonia police:

On Monday, a woman told police that a man named Nate Stevens, a representative from Windows Technology, called her to tell say her computer was sending out viruses, which was illegal. She was told the company would repair the computer for $180. The woman told the representative that $180 was too much, and Stevens reduced the price to $150.60.

Find out what's happening in Caledoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The woman then gave him the company her credit card number. Stevens told the woman that he would refund the money if she wasn't satisfied and gave her a toll-free number to call. The computer work never got done and when the woman called the number, the person told her he wouldn’t give her the money back.

Both the salesperson and Stevens had a Jamaican accent, the woman told police.

When the woman brought the computer to Best Buy, they told her nothing was wrong with the computer. However, they fixed 22 viruses and took spyware off of it. Best Buy didn’t charge the woman.

She reported the incident to her bank, which refunded the money to her. They told the woman the payment was sent to a company called Solutions for Tech.

In September, a woman called the police to report a similar experience with the same company, but a message popped up on her computer screen indicating that there was a video driver problem. A link then directed her to Microsoft, which gave her instructions on how to fix the problem. However, her screen went black and she wasn’t able to fix it.

A man named "Peter" from Windows Tech called the woman and said he was located in England. For two hours, Peter tried to help the woman repair the problem, only to tell her that someone had hacked into it. Peter told the woman he would be able to fix her computer for $199 and the payment was sent to someone named Babu Rahman, who was in Italy.

Peter told the woman that Western Union would ask why she was sending the money to Rahman and she was instructed to tell them that he was her friend. The woman’s credit card was charged twice.

An official from Western Union told the woman the transaction was fraudulent and the charge was stopped. Later that day, the woman received a phone call from Peter asking her if she had sent the money. She told him no and he got angry with her.

The next day, a representative from DND Tech service called the woman, but the woman hung up on her.

The police started investigating these incidents.


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