If you have been a victim of a scam and experienced a financial loss, please call the Niagara Regional Police Service non-emergency number at 90, dial option 2 and ask for “dispatch” to file a report. Shut down and disconnect your device from the Internet.

Heres our 10-point plan to deal with it: 1. Scammers are able to spoof emails and phone numbers so they can pretend to be someone the victim knows. After all, thats most likely what will have happened after a scammer gets access to your computer. Police say to be wary of anyone asking for gift cards, Bitcoin or anything unusual as a form of payment or financial assistance. The scammer requests the amount to be purchased through gift cards. If the victim grants remote access, the victim installs programs onto the computer (Team Viewer and Ultra Viewer) and then requests money from the victim in order to search for the ‘suspect’ that made purchases on the victim’s account. The scammer then asks the victim to allow the scammer access to the victim’s computer to review their bank records. Turn on automatic updates for non-Microsoft software as well.

Make sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update to keep Windows, Microsoft Office, and other Microsoft applications up to date. Police say fruadsters are calling people pretending to represent a bank, saying their account has been compromised. Windows has a firewall already built in and automatically turned on.

Niagara Police are reminding residents about bank scams.

Ultraviewer scams