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An eighty four year old man believed he had won £8000 pounds however it was a scam.
Now Ron Watts from Ryde has had to change his phone number to avoid receiving any more calls as well as on some days receiving upto 35 scam letters. The firm that intially contacted Mr Watts was Dolices Gourmandises.
Amanda Gregory, regulatory services manager at Isle of Wight Council says:
Unfortunately Ron's case is all too familiar, especially among elderly people. Scammers can come across very convincingly and do trick some people into parting with their cash.
We would again repeat the message that if it is too good to be true, it usually is and if you are unsure, contact trading standards or speak to your friends and family.
We are very grateful Ron is supporting trading standards by giving advice to residents and hopefully his story will help prevent others from being scammed.
The council are also issuing warnings of computer based scams, one in particular involves phone callers claiming that they are from Microsoft.
The Isle of Wight Council's Trading Standards have this to say.
Residents have reported they have been called by someone claiming to be from Microsoft. The caller states a virus has been detected on their PC and they require remote access to clear it.
The caller then asks for anything up to £400 to be paid using a credit or debit card and have also been known to try and trick the computer owner into giving details that allows them remote access to their PC.
This is a scam and anyone who receives a call like this should never give out personal details and should hang up and contact Trading Standards.
Microsoft does not directly contact customers for any reason and advises anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of a phone scam to do the following:
·Change their computer’s password, change the password on their main email account and change the password for any financial accounts, especially bank and credit cards
·Scan their computer with the Microsoft Safety Scanner to find out if they have malware installed on their computer
·Contact their bank and credit card companies
Trading Standards can be contacted on 823370.
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