Local residents are increasingly complaining about receiving suspicious, even bizarre, phone calls from what appear to be potential scammers looking to hack into victims' computers.
Both the RCMP and area residents are warning people about these calls, and vigilant against revealing personal information.
Recently, Battlefords RCMP said they received a complaint about telephone calls from people identifying themselves as "Microsoft Technologies," stating they are getting a number of error reports fromthe intended victim'scomputer. The person on the line then asks the victim to log on the computer and provide the "CLS-ID" number. That allows remote access to personal information stored on the computer.
Police say it was at this point the victim realized this was a scam and did not give any information to the person at the other end of the line. The victim afterwards contacted Microsoft who confirmed they do not solicit information in this way.
The RCMPsays they believe this is a scam andare warning people to not provideconfidential information to someone they do not know over the telephone.According to police the telephone calls appear to be random. They say if you receive a call it should be reported to your local RCMP Detachment.
This is not the first time area residents have been warned about the possible scam, as reports of suspicious phone calls about computers have circulated for the last several weeks in the Northwest.
One local area resident, Menno Fieguth, told the Regional Optimist about a strange phone call his household received. The person on the other end of the line had asked if he owned a computer. However, Fieguth refused to give out any information and told the caller he had heard the RCMP warning people about calls like this.
He said the person at the other end of the line responded by saying "well you stupid little -----," before hanging up. Fieguth found that response strange, to say the least.
He also added the phone number originated in the 253 area code, which would be Washington state. Fieguth said he planned to call the RCMP to alert them to the strange and suspicious phone call.
