Hamilton Grey Power June 2017

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Scammers almost swipe $12,000
from Motueka woman
BY MARTIN DE RUYTER
Shirley McGuire, co-owner
of green world health
and Lifestyle in Motueka,
was approached by a telephone
scammer claiming to
be from Spark.
A Motueka business owner
has been left feeling violated
after a phone scammer nearly
got away with $12,000 of her
and her husband's life savings.
This follows a warning from
police last week after three elderly
residents in the Tasman
district were scammed out
of $120,000 through phone
scams.
Shirley McGuire said she
wanted to warn others not to
unwittingly "open the door"
to those who called and pretended
to be from legitimate
companies.
"They use trusted names,"
McGuire said after a person
claiming to work for Spark
called her Green World Health
& Lifestyle store on Wednesday,
under the guise of addressing
a faulty modem.
"He introduced himself by
name and he said they'd been
monitoring the modem and
it hadn't been working properly."
McGuire said she and
her husband, Mike, had just
bought a new Spark modem
and had been having difficulties
with internet dropping in
and out, so the call seemed
legitimate.
The man used the "right
technical language" which
made her even more assured
that he was legitimate.
He told her a technician
would come and replace some
equipment the next day, and
even gave a false name, Spark
staff ID number, and appointment
time.
The phone scammer ran a
diagnostic through the computer
after McGuire had given
him remote access through
Teamviewer software. It
seemed to fix errors and alerts,
"Other professionals who
have come and done work on
my computer have used Teamviewer
so I didn't think anything
of that," she said.
The man told her the computer
and router were faulty
and she was owed $900 by
Spark, and he would transfer
the money into her bank account
as "they weren't allowed
to use cheques".
He then told her to log into
her internet banking to check
the money had gone in.
Because the Teamviewer
software was still running, the
scammer was able to access to
her account, but McGuire said
she hadn't put two-and-two
together.
"The computer screen kept
going black and I said: 'what's
happening'? and he said"
'don't worry ma'am, we're
giving you $900 and I'm just
trying to put it into your account'."
When $9000 appeared in
the account both McGuire
and her husband became suspicious.
She said the man tried to
assure her it had been a mistake
and they needed to give
him back the money or he'd
lose his job, but her husband
didn't buy it.
The couple hung up the
call, rang their bank, and got
the ANZ account closed just in
time.
"What we didn't realise is
[the scammers] had just transferred
the $9000 from our
credit account," she said.
ANZ closed the account just
minutes before the scammers
completed a $12,000 withdrawal.
McGuire said it had been an
emotional couple of days and
she kept feeling distraught
that she'd nearly lost them so
much money.
"You think you're an intelligent
person and that you're
doing the right thing [in cooperating
with the caller],"
she said.
"I just keep thinking about
my responsibility in it. It really
does affect you because you
think 'I opened the door that
let them in ...'"
She didn't want to go
through life suspecting people
but felt it was important to be
aware of the dangers of these
kinds of scams.
McGuire said if people were
cold-called they should ask the
caller for a phone number and
offer to call them back.
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If the caller was legitimate
they'd be able to give a local
number that could be verified.
Police told her that a lot of
people had been hit in Motueka,
and many people had
lost a lot of money in similar
scams.
McGuire said they were
pleased the bank moved so
in July and August at Von Tempsky Street branch only.
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Continued on page 8
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Hamilton greypower Magazine – June 2017 7