The Saskatoon Police Service says there has been an uptick recently in phone and computer pop-up scams.
Phone scams usually take the form of a scammer contacting the victim telling them they are from a company and the caller attempts to convince the victim to provide personal details and credit card information. If successful, the fraudster will then deplete the bank account and/or credit card.
Computer pop-up scams occur when the victim’s computer gets a pop-up notification claiming their computer has been compromised and to call a phone number. When the victim calls the phone number provided, the fraudster will claim that in order to protect their computer, they need to take out cash and convert it into Bitcoin.
Some rule-of-thumb tips: companies, the Canada Revenue Agency and police will never contact you and ask for bank account or credit card data. As well computer/software companies will never contact you by phone or on your computer and request money.
It is fraud if you receive phone calls, emails or pop-ups requesting that you withdraw large sums of money from your bank, if you are told not to tell anyone about it and keep it a secret and if you are asked to put money in a bitcoin machine or buy gift cards and pre-paid credit cards.