Patricia became involved in what appeared to be a refund. The caller instructed her to enter $2,999, but when she pressed Enter, another 9 appeared and the amount became $29,999. The caller claimed he would correct the mistake, but said he first needed direct access to her computer.

When that supposed fix did not work, the caller transferred her to a “supervisor.” The supervisor said the only way to correct the amount was for Patricia to go directly to her bank and send a wire transfer. The entire sequence was part of a remote-access refund scam, not a legitimate correction.

Patricia knew something was wrong and spoke with her husband, who said they should call the police. While the scammer remained on the phone believing she was driving to the bank, Patricia and her husband were actually waiting for officers to arrive. The police responded quickly, told her to hang up, and instructed her to report the incident to the bank. The bank then advised her to have the computer professionally evaluated.

Because an unknown person had controlled the computer remotely, removing one visible program was not enough to establish that the system could be trusted. I backed up Patricia’s personal data, formatted the hard drive, installed a clean copy of Windows, and then restored her files.

This case is an important reminder that numbers displayed on a remotely controlled computer cannot be trusted. A scammer who controls the screen can make a normal account appear to contain a mistaken deposit and then use that illusion to frighten someone into sending real money.

Related service: Computer Scam and Fraud Help.