A man has been scammed out of more than £600 after turning to Google for help with his Amazon Alexa device.
Scamwise NI are urging people to be vigilant after PSNI received a report that a man lost £629 to online scammers.
Highlighting the incident, a Scamwise NI spokesperson said: "Police Service of Northern Ireland have recently informed us of an incident where a gentleman was having issues with his Amazon Alexa device, so began searching Google for a solution. Google turned up a website which looked helpful, it even had a contact telephone number
"The gentleman rang this number and spoke to an “advisor” who told him that in order to resolve the issue he would need to access his computer
"He then advised that 42 other people were also watching his computer and to erase these people there would be a fee of £629 which would offer protection from this in the future.
"Unfortunately in this case the gentleman made the payment."
They have urged the public not to give out their personal details online.
"Never give your personal details out in this manner. These scammers are well versed in tech lingo and will use all the lines to convince you they are legitimate."
Police say anyone “concerned they have been a victim of a scam either report the matter to Action Fraud via their website www.actionfraud.police.uk or by phoning 0300 123 2040."
Further advice and information is available at visit www.nidirect.gov.uk/scamwiseni or the ScamwiseNI Facebook page @scamwiseni.
