Some Maine Residents Being Targeted by Realistic Looking E-Mail Scam; Here’s What to Avoid

It never ceases to amaze us the extent to which scammers will go to extort people out of their hard-earned money.

Remember when we told you about the grandparent scam?

Scammers would call unsuspecting grandparents in Maine and tell them one of their grandchildren had been involved in a car accident. The scammer would give few details and tell the elderly victim that they needed to make a payment so that the ambulance could provide their grandchild with transportation to the closest hospital.

They would even have the sounds of emergency vehicles and people crying in the background. Absolutely deplorable.

Now there's another scam to warn unsuspecting Mainers about.

According to WGME 13, the scam starts off with a simple email that can then lead to a phone call with the scammer and even end with them taking over your computer and sending themselves your money.

The news station says that the Yarmouth, Maine, Police Department has sent a warning to residents that a new scam involves people sending emails pretending to be from Norton Anti-Virus.

They will then tell you that they issued you a billing refund in error and that you need to pay them back.

Here's where it gets super-scammy, the scammer, via email, will ask you to repay the erroneous refund using gift cards. Seem fishy? That's because it is. They will, in some cases, even ask you to call them so they can walk you through it on the phone. And, in the most extreme cases, they will ask to take remote control of your computer so they can send themselves the money.

Police are reminding Mainers to never allow any third parties to access your computer.