A cyber-attack focused on the Greater Lisbon area has cleaned-out at least 12 people’s bank accounts and is almost certain to have affected “many others”, warns PJ police which have now issued a nationwide alert warning people of the scammers’ modus operandi.
Calls via landlines purporting to be from Microsoft initiate the process.
The Resident can verify the story as our reporter Natasha Donn got one of the calls earlier this week.
“It sounded odd from the start,” she told us. “First there was a woman asking me to hold the line and then a man speaking English but with an Indian accent came on, saying he was from Microsoft and needed to give me some support for a problem with my computer.
“I kind of felt it was all wrong, so I just said ‘goodbye’ very loudly and hung up. They didn’t try calling back.”
Unfortunately, this was not the case for at least 12 other people who are all reported to have lodged formal complaints with the police.
A source for the PJ said that the total number of people affected will almost certainly run to many more.
“We have received dozens of calls, just from the Lisbon area alone, as well as messages from people who say they have been approached by the fraudsters,” the source told Portuguese media.
What the scammers effectively do is access people’s private data with which they can then effect financial transfers.
In all cases they ask for access codes and, in some, they advise people to install programmes known-in-the-trade as Trojan Horses – which let scammers into the computer-holders’ personal data.
According to the PJ’s alert, the scammers invariably have either Indian or North African accents and they always speak in English.
The fear is that the fraudsters will now set their sights on other parts of the country where English-speakers are prevalent.
