One evening in September, an Ellicottville, N.Y., woman saw a pop-up warning on her computer screen, called the accompanying 800 number for help and ultimately lost $3,000 in a scam.

The woman later called computer technician Howard Blumenthal in Bradford, who helped her undo most of the damage, but wasn’t able to help her recover her money.

Blumenthal, who owns Blumenthals.com, a computer, internet and technical support services company, said the call from the distressed woman was the third he had received in the past month from people who have been duped into providing credit or debit card and personal information to scammers. The three older women, from Ellicottville, Olean, N.Y., and Bradford, respectively, lost hundreds and even thousands of dollars through the scams.

Blumenthal said he has heard from others over the past five years that the scams have been circulating. He said most of the scammed people are older, trusting and don’t ask too many questions of the person on the other end of the line.

“These guys are smooth talkers who quickly gain the confidence of someone who is a naive computer user,” Blumenthal explained. “They claim to be from Microsoft, McAfee, Apple, etc., but in actuality they are scammers that have an 800 number, but no website.”

The messages people receive state the company’s monitoring software has alerted them to a problem on the individual’s personal computer and the company can help.

“Or they see a scary pop-up on their screen and call the (800) number on their own,” Blumenthal said, noting many of the pop-up warnings are blue in color.

“We call it the old blue screen of death — the scary screen,” he said.

The pop-up warnings are actually damaging software referred to as malware, which travels into a computer when a person clicks on advertisements found on websites or Facebook.

Blumenthal said if a pop-up warning should appear on the computer screen, it locks up the device but it doesn’t mean the computer is infected with a virus. Instead, the individual needs to force-quit out of the browser. This can be done on a PC by hitting control-alt-delete which will take the computer to the task manager. From there, quit out of the program.

On a Mac, go to the Apple symbol at the top of the screen, click on force quit and restart the computer. Blumenthal said that in no way should anyone ever call the 800 number listed with a pop-up if they can’t get their computer back on track.

“Never, ever, ever call the 800 number,” he stressed emphatically. “It’s a bogus number.”

Instead, individuals should call a trusted technician to make the computer repairs.

He said the second scenario occurs when the phone rings and the unsuspecting individual picks up to hear a person on the other end claim to be a computer technician with a well-known company. The “technician” tells the victim the company has been alerted to problems with the individual’s computer and can help.

“You’re supposed to give them remote access to your computer, and that’s the scary part,” Blumenthal continued. “Eventually they’ll diagnose a problem and ask you to pay for it.”  

The individual should hang up on the scammer immediately, Blumenthal advised.

In sharing her story, the Ellicottville woman said a pop-up warning appeared on her screen late one night and she called the 800 number when she couldn’t get her computer to work.

At one point, the fake technician told her there were people who had accessed her computer from Europe, her system needed to be and she would have to buy a technology services membership. The company was able to remove the pop-up warning, and prevented other hits on her computer which helped create trust with the woman.

“I kept getting all of these (requests) for proof of my identity, so I had to send them a copy of my driver’s license,” she recalled. “Finally, I got proof of delivered service and when I got it, it had an email signature from me and the amount (charged to the credit card) was $3,000, with $92 in taxes.”

The woman said when she called a number the company provided to call them back, she learned the “company” wasn’t a regular business, was located in India and was for sale.

Frightened, she reached out to a friend who in turn directed her to contact Blumenthal.

Other similar scams were conducted on women from Olean and Bradford, Pa., with those women losing $500 and $295, respectively.

“They might trick you into installing malware that gives them access to your computer, they may try to sell you software that is worthless or you can get elsewhere for free,” Blumenthal said. “If you fall for this, you’re in a whole new level of possibilities because you let them in.”

Blumenthal said other categories of scamming, phishing and ransomware lock up computer files at businesses and corporations. This type of cyber attack can make its way into a computer system when individuals click on links sent in emails. Ransomware was at the root of a global cyber attack in May that affected more than 200,000 organizations in 150 countries.

Blumenthal said his advice is to be cautious with links and don’t click on them unless the sender of the email is carefully checked for authenticity.