What would you do if your cable or satellite company called you, saying you need a software update? You might say "OK, what do I need to do?"
One Hamilton, Ohio man just found out why that can be a very bad idea.
Changing satellites, needed update
Darel Bono loves watching his favorite shows on DirecTV. But he is now warning other customers to beware calls from the satellite company.
"They called me the other evening," he said, "and they went through this business, that we are changing satellites, so we are going to change the software in your devices."
Bono, who always tries to say current with tech, said "sure." He then asked the caller what he needed to do to download the update.
"He needed my DirecTV account, and PIN number, and the last 4 digits of my Social Security number," he said.
Caller sounded legitimate
Bono says he gets calls from robocallers all the time and knows to hang up.
But this time was different, because the caller knew his name and it appeared they were indeed with DirecTV.
"They knew my name," he said. "It wasn't a random call. And they knew my old home address."
But after he gave his personal info, Bono got nervous.
"The first clue something wasn't right was that he started referring to it as Dish Network, instead of DirecTV. I corrected him, and he said, oh yeah."
Bono hung up. But the damage had been done.
He contacted DirecTV , where a rep told him he was scammed.
How to protect yourself
So don't let this happen to you.
- Satellite and cable providers will never call you to confirm account numbers and Social Security Numbers.
- Updates are typically downloaded automatically.
- If you accidentally give your Social, contact the credit bureaus, and put a fraud alert on your account.
"Be careful, you gotta be careful," Bono said. Next time, he says, he will hang up.
As always, don't waste your money.
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