GOSHEN – Vishing is a new way thieves take your personal and credit information using a phone and your computer.
"There are some serious alerts coming from our server,” said Chad Spencer with Maple Tronics in Goshen.
He recited a common pitch used by scammers known as vishers, people who scam you by phone. They are slick and their M.O. is simple: try to flip the script on you to get access to your computer and personal information.
Jackie Warrior, a WSBT news viewer, received one of those calls. On the other line, someone told her she needed to act fast because her computer had a virus and in just two days it was going to crash. That was when she started asking questions.
"Why are you alerted," questioned Warrior. "I have nothing to do with Global Tech."
Warrior asked the man on the other line why the company was in her computer. She said the man told her he was not but his company can get rid of a virus.
After a few minutes on the phone, she got to work. She took the number from her caller ID: 208-099-7526 and searched, online and discovered that it was not Global Tech. It was vishers on the hunt for another easy target.
"There are pages on there of complaints and different things," Warrior said.
Also featured were many people whose computers were hacked and the victims did all the work by following the visher's directions to visit their site. Spencer calls it "remote" control.
"Once they connect to your computer, they'll install a virus of some sort that will pull your personal information, banking, credit information and use it in a harmful way," said Spencer.
Warrior was one to be concerned.
"If they are in this area code, it may go through our area," she said.
In some of the forums related to the 099 number, unsuspecting victims lost between $200 and $1000 dollars. Some of the victims had to spend as much as $150 getting viruses removed from their computer.
WSBT learned Microsoft and other companies will not call you at home and ask you for your credit card information and they will not ask you go to a specific site to protect your computer.
