Wabasha police say a frozen screen and a fake Microsoft number led to a demand for a $4,000 card. Here is how the trick works and who should hear about it.
Police in Wabasha, Minnesota, are warning about a scam that starts with one email and ends with a demand for $4,000. A local opened an email, the computer froze, and a phone number appeared on the screen. The call was allegedly from Microsoft.
The Wabasha Police Department issued the warning on Tuesday, October 20. When you call the number, you get transferred to someone claiming to be from a credit card company. That person says you must buy a "high security credit card" at Lowe's to fix your computer problem. The price they give is four grand.
None of this is real. A frozen screen with a phone number is built to make you panic and call. A real computer problem is never fixed by buying a card.
Anyone who uses email on a computer. Older relatives and people who often ask others for computer help are the ones most worth warning. People who delete junk email without opening it skip the first step of this scam.
The steps in the alert box above cover what to do if a screen freezes like this.
The police warning does not say whether the local lost any money, how many people received the email, or what the email contained. Police do offer one simple rule: if an email is truly important, the sender will find another way to reach you.
If a screen freezes and shows a phone number, do not call it, and never buy a card to fix a computer problem.
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