A computer scam has hit Northland.
The scam is being reported around the country and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has warned people against falling into the trap.
Scammers claiming to be from an IT support help desk, computer-fixing companies - or even representing Microsoft - telephone offering a computer repair serviceand credit card payment.
Northern Advocate employee Cam Mitchell received a call last week from someone who claimed to be from GreyBytes of Quaker St in Auckland. No such street exists and the phone number provided was false.
Mr Mitchell said he suspected the caller wasn't genuine the moment his wife told him about it.
"He claimed to be from the technical customer support division of Microsoft and tried to get me to turn my computer on.
"The whole thing to me sounded fake but it will sound convincing to those who are not computer-savvy," he said.
Ministry spokesman Richard Parlett said like Australia, where reports of computer-fixing scams have recently increased from about 200 to more than 2000 a month, New Zealand had seen an increase as well. Martin Cocker of NetSafe has urged people not to offer any information, nor to allow callers to remotely log into the computer. They should just hang up. He said people shouldn't worry about the scammers' knowledge of personal information such as date of birth, address and even purchase history, because it had likely been stolen from websites.
"It's been reported that the scammers have become increasingly aggressive when information isn't passed over straight away. We advise don't let it get to this point and hang up immediately," he said.
Visit www.scamwatch.govt.nz for more information.
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