Here’s the latest scam to come to my doorstep:

“My CallerID read Comcast, and when I answered, the caller apologized for not securing my Xfinity router properly. They said they’d just fixed it and that I was owed a credit. I allowed him to remote-control my PC, and he helped me get $300 sent to my bank account.”

“But it went south from there. Instead of $300, he accidentally sent $3000! Then he explained he couldn’t undo the mistake, and asked if I could go to the store and buy some gift cards in the amount of $2700…”

Xfinity Customer

After the mention of gift cards, the customer aborted all further dealings with the crook, contacted his bank and changed all involved passwords. I have to trust that his bank will take proper security measures to safeguard his account. I, for my part, secured the computer and made sure the bad guys could no longer get in.

To be clear about this scam: The caller was not with Comcast, and there was never any problem with the customer’s router. Oh, and that $3000 transfer? It disappeared. $3000 showed up in his account as incoming funds, but was reversed and deleted by the bank when it was found to be fraudulent. If the customer had cooperated further with the scammer, they would’ve collected the gift cards’ numbers from him and made off with $2700 of untraceable money.

Comcast users (and everyone else) beware! CallerID is not to be trusted, because it can be falsified. Xfinity will not ask to remotely connect to your computers for any refunds or monetary rewards. And Comcast will not ask you to use gift cards for anything!

If you use Comcast TV or Xfinity Internet, you may appreciate this website. Comcast posts to this page when there is a security alert or threat related to their network and services. And you can read examples of all the scams that are reported in to them.