By Susan Shinn Turner
For the Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Mom always said, “Never talk to strangers.”

An 82-year-old Salisbury woman has found this to be true online as well.

Over a period of nine months, she was scammed out of more than $2,000 in fraudulent computer support charges.

“What a fool I’ve been,” says the woman, a resident of Trinity Oaks.

It all started in September, when she saw a message pop up on her screen: “Something you don’t understand? Call us.”

“They’re always extremely courteous,” she says of the phone operators, who she thought had an Indian accent. “They’re there 24/7.”

She knows now that hackers likely caused a computer problem in the first place, but at the time, she agreed to pay $300 for “spyware security.” She paid with a credit card, and soon after had the number changed.

In January, a company calling itself Lifetime Security U.S. Software Mart asked her to pay $399 for a “lifetime security plan.” She did not pay for that, but soon after got a call from her credit-card company that someone in New Jersey had tried to charge her card in the amount of $399.

She didn’t recognize the name of the company and didn’t think much about it. Finally, she got a call from Pro Fix U.S. which said it was a Microsoft-certified company and wanted to charge her $89.95 for security services.

“I thought, ‘Well it’s Microsoft so it must be OK,’” the woman says.

In April, she got a call from Web Support in New Jersey, which said her computer had been hacked and it even affected her Kindle.

“They sent me a new Kindle, and I thought, ‘This is amazing,’” she says. But they also sent a bill for $1,249 to “clean up” her computer.

“It was such a mess,” she says.

She wrote a check and the company sent FedEx to her house to pick it up.

In June, another New Jersey company called, asking for $399 for a “Lifetime Guarantee.” Then it said it had overcharged her and wanted to send her a refund.

“I said, ‘That’s fine. Send me a check,’” the woman says. “I was beginning to get smart, thank God. I had talked to my son and he said, ‘Mom, you’re being scammed.’”

She was, to the tune of $2,037.95.

“I feel like such a stupid person,” she says. “But that’s the way they operate. They’re very convincing. I think I was targeted because of my age. I don’t know a lot about my computer.”

One person who called said to her, “You sound like my grandmother.”

“Is your grandmother stupid, too?” she replied.

The woman is not alone, says Brad Walser, president of Walser Technology Group, based in downtown Salisbury.

“We’ve made a video we posted about the Microsoft scam, one of the more prevalent ones,” Walser says. “Older users are usually the population that falls for it. The manufacturer is not going to call you and tell you that your computer needs repairs. Never give out your credit card information. No one should call you and ask for you to click on a link, and then give them your credit card. I’ve had this happen to many educated people. It’s nothing to feel bad about.”

If you think you’ve been hacked, the best thing to do, Walser says, is to shut down your computer immediately and take it to a computer repair shop.

“If something happens, don’t be embarrassed to reach out to professionals,” he says. “Otherwise, you give bad people more and more time on your computer. We are discreet. We see stuff all the time. Once you’ve given a user access, they can go back and look for more and more information. The sooner you get them off your computer, the better.”

Also, Walser said, his customers appreciate one-on-one, face-to-face interaction, not talking on the phone with someone they can barely understand.

Trinity Oaks staff is always on the lookout for scams, says Bill Johnson, its executive director.

“We’ve had residents to get suspicious phone calls,” he says. “I think some are very keen, and others it takes by surprise. We put out notices whenever we hear about scams. The thing that really burns me up about computer scams is that these people know how to use terms that make them sound legitimate. When computers started coming into vogue, many of our residents had already retired.”

Because of that, Trinity Oaks is hosting a seminar on senior scams at 3 p.m. Aug. 23, in the special events room at Trinity Oaks. The seminar is free and open to the public.