Sheriff Wes Tripp said this morning no money has been bilked from the scams thus far.

In a news release the sheriff said a Roanoke Rapids resident reported that his computer was accessed this week. The resident noticed that the curser was active on his computer, thus his files were being accessed.

The resident further stated that he had his computer safeguarded by a private company to which he immediately reported the incident.

The company advised that the source of the unauthorized access was from the Virgin Islands, where known cyber terrorist groups are active and the company received thousands of similar complaints across the country.

Despite the security measures in place, the firewall was compromised. “We also recommend that your Wi-Fi be secured with a unique password to avoid local cyber scammers. The advice we have to residents is not to maintain passwords on your computer, store them on an external hard drive or zip drive.”

If you do online banking, turn your computer off after transactions or don’t leave the computer unattended for extended periods of time. The scammers are searching the files for personal information or direct access to your accounts.

Once personal information is obtained scammers can make online purchases or even establish identities to obtain credit lines. They can even change your passwords so you don’t have access while they are actively scamming. “We often have personal information for children, such as social security numbers in computer files. This information should also be maintained outside of computer access.”

A second type of recent complaint was where a citizen reported being called by a person claiming to be a federal IRS agent. The caller had the resident’s name, date of birth, license number, and social security number.

The caller attempted to threaten the resident with high fines if money was not sent to an online account. In this case the resident did not give the caller account information as they requested. “Please be wary of any suspicious calls.”

Tripp also noted some scams discussed by Attorney General Roy Cooper on his visit to Roanoke Rapids last week.

The North Carolina Attorney General's website has more information for consumer complaints. Residents can also report scam attempts by calling the Attorney General Fraud line at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM.