NO YOU DON'T!!!We had a call from a client on Friday to say the client's had a phone call from someone with a foreign, possibly Indian, accent, who told him that he now needed a licence to continue using his computer, and it would cost him ?120. He was not to use his computer until the fee was paid or he'd be in trouble with the law, and he could pay the fee at either his local Co-op or Spar shop.
The client, who is an elderly pensioner, told the caller he couldn't afford to pay ?120 for a licence, so the caller suggested he could pay ?55 instead if he did it straight away. Client said he couldn't do that either. Caller said he will ring back on Tuesday to sort it out. It will be interesting to see if the caller does ring back on Tuesday!
Client called us to ask for advice. Clearly a scam, but not one we've come across before in this area!!!
We have spoken to an Inspector at Cumbria Police about it and he advised us to urge anyone who has one of these calls to contact the Cumbria Police directly on 0845 33 00 247.
Meanwhile,
we think that the scam is taking advantage of the new Western Union money transfer service http://www.paypoint.co.uk/westernunionnowavailableonpaypointterminal.aspx offered by the PayPoint scheme since 16 May 2011. PayPoint is available in most Co-ops and Spars, along with other retail outlets, for the easy payment of utility bills, mobile phone topups and other transactions.
If you have had one of these calls please let us know too by replying below or drop us an email or Private Message.
