A nine-digit phone number still puzzles Ruth Irving Wiren.
The number, 05-265-0227, is just one of those on her call display that cause concern.
Recently she was targeted in what appears to be a phone scam, rooted in a computer ruse.
“Now and again I get a message that there’s been an error and I can report it to Microsoft or ignore it,” she explained. “So I got a call from Microsoft. I thought ‘this is because of the error’.”
Turns out, the call wasn’t from the large software company at all. Microsoft doesn’t make unsolicited tech support calls.
After an hour of going screen to screen, and counting more than 200 error messages with the purported technician on the other end of the line, the caller told her he had security there that would “clean it up.”
Then Paypal showed up on the screen. Then they asked for her VISA number.
The Sidney woman denied the service and hung up.
Later Wiren copied the number from her call display and punched it into an online search engine where she discovered media coverage of the scam, exactly as she experienced it.
Not long after the security scam, she got a call from France, that nine-digit number that doesn’t even come up in the search engine. She called her phone provider, and now pays $5 a month for call blocking, to which she just keeps adding numbers.
“I know there’s so many other people out there who don’t know what to do about it,” Wiren said. “Quite often I can find these numbers on the internet and see it’s a scam.”
However, those without internet or call display to rely on, could easily become prey, she fears.
Wiren’s put together a package of information and shares what she knows around her neighbourhood in Sidney. She shared the information with her girlfriends, from across the CRD, who are in turn passing it along through their stratas and condo buildings.
She’s also become familiar with the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre website www.antifraudcentre.ca (formerly phonebusters.com).
“They’ve got a really good website,” Wiren said.
If you suspect that you may be a target of fraud, have already sent funds, or want to report a fraud contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501 or email info@antifraudcentre.ca or your local police.