Apparently my Amazon account has been locked, I’ve paid “Geek Services” $398 and I’ve forked over $542 for a Norton 360 subscription. Oh, and Microsoft says all of my devices are bothering the Internet so I need to send 5 Gift Cards to get a special device installed on my Wi-Fi.

But wait. My Amazon account works fine. I have no idea who “Geek Services” is and my credit cards don’t show any payment to them or Norton. And, why in the world would Microsoft or any big company want gift cards as payment??!!

Don’t let yourself be fooled by scary calls, emails and text messages. Recently we have seen a large increase in fraudulent activity. In the past month alone, scammers have cheated people out of thousands of dollars and forced them to spend time and money to undo the wrong. That’s exactly what these scammers are hoping for - that you’ll be shook up enough to let them into your computer, purchase a renewal you don’t need or go out and buy gift cards to pay for something that will never show up. First and foremost, DO NOT LET ANYONE INTO YOUR COMPUTER EXCEPT SHE’S WIRED OR ANOTHER COMPANY YOU PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED TO LOGIN.

Scammers continue to be crafty in their approach. They prey on you. They want to make you feel like they are helping you, taking care of the problem. But in fact, they are scaring you into giving them your money and/or your personal information. No legitimate company will ever ask you to use gift cards to pay for anything.

If you get a weird email, text or phone call, the first thing to do is to STOP. Take your hands off your keyboard. Don’t respond to the text or email. DO NOT call any number they give you. Hang up if you picked up a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, Apple, McAfee, Norton, etc. The more you engage with these scammers, the more information and money they will get from you. Above all, DO NOT LET ANYONE INTO YOUR COMPUTER EXCEPT SHE’S WIRED OR ANOTHER COMPANY YOU PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED TO LOGIN. If someone calls you or you call a number that pops up on your screen and they want into your computer to “help, ”Hang Up! They will take your personal information, hack into your bank account and withdraw all your money or get you to wire funds to them. Hang Up!

Here are a few samples of the text and emails we received recently:

Look carefully at the emails. The Sender email is from an @gmail.com account. Big companies like Norton, Geek Squad, McAfee, Microsoft, Apple and many others do not use Gmail for their email. They use email ending in @norton.com, @bestbuy.com, @mcafee.com, @microsoft.com or @apple.com. When you get a similar email, look at the Sender email address. If it’s not from a company email account, delete the email, mark it as spam or junk. Just make it go away and all will be well.

Same with text messages. The texts I received from Amazon and Netflix telling me my account was locked/placed on hold came from a really weird account - authrdc.cust-mailspprtaccnt-amzco-22144-03030@webspageamzn05.it. Looks official and scary, doesn’t it? First, if the sender is an odd address like the one above, DO NOT click on the link. Second, launch your web browser (Google, Firefox, Edge, Safari) and go to amazon.com or netflix.com and login. If you can, you have just confirmed it’s junk. Third, delete the text.

I assume everything is a scam until I confirm it a different way. Check your credit card company to see if there are charges. Login to the account they say has been locked by going directly to the credit card website. But above all, do not click on links, attachments or call any phone numbers on those scam notifications.

If all of this is overwhelming, you can contact She’s Wired. Many clients will take a photo of the email, text or pop-up on their screen and email it to wecanhelp@sheswired.com. We can quickly assess the issue, call you to get more info and help determine if it’s a scam or junk. We may even find it’s real. But it’s better to be safe, than sorry.

Here’s a handy info graphic that you can download to your computer and print out. Reference it the next time you get one of these scammy email, text or calls. Then call us for more help.

Click on the graphic to download the PDF or click here to download and print the file.

Any questions? Contact us at 404-935-9614 or email wecanhelp@sheswired.com.