A 67-year-old York County man has lost $9,300 after a fraudulent computer repair company scammed him several times between April and mid-December 2016.
The man received a call April 3 from the fraudulent company, advising him his computer was infected with viruses and spam, according to York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Dennis Ivey.
He gave the scammers remote access to his computer, which also contained all of his banking information, to perform the necessary work to remove the viruses and spam, Ivey said.
The caller charged $249.99 to the York County man’s Visa Platinum card for the work, police said.
The man told police that he was contacted again at a later date by the same people, who said they needed remote access to his computer again because they couldn’t resolve the computer’s issues the first time.
The company charged another $249.99 to the man’s Visa Platinum card.
On Dec. 6, the same fraudulent company called the man back and told him they were going out of business and needed to refund the money he had spent. The company said they would deposit the refunded $500 directly into his checking account, Ivey said.
“That’s what he thought they did, until he was contacted again by the company,” Ivey said. “They said they accidently put in $5,000 in his account because they added an extra zero.”
The fraudulent company asked the man to wire the extra money to a Bank of America account, which he did. On Dec. 19, the man was contacted again by the computer company, who asked he transfer the money again because it didn’t go through the first time, Ivey said. The man wired an additional $4,700.
Later, it was discovered that the fraudulent company had accessed the man’s banking information on his computer when they had remote access, and used cash advances from his SunTrust credit card to put money in his checking account.
“The $5,000 was actually a transfer from his cash advance,” Ivey said.
In total, the man lost $9,300 from the incident, Ivey said.
The incident is still under investigation.
