Yukoners have been targeted by at least two new phone scams in the last month, and are warning others to be wary of unsolicited offers from telemarketers.

Pat Burmingham happened to be visiting her elderly parents last week, when a person claiming to be calling from Microsoft called and spoke to her father.

"He told my father there was a problem with his computer,” Burmingham told the Star.

"He told him to turn the computer on and they would walk him through the steps to fix the computer.”

Her father quickly turned the phone over to his daughter, not because he was particularly suspicious, but because he is not very tech savvy, Burmingham explained.

As soon as she got on the phone, her defences went up.

"He got me as far as the computer, and then the hair went up on the back of my neck,” she said. "He wanted me to change the settings on the computer.

"I got very suspicious because number one: I couldn't understand the gentleman, and number two: it sounded like he was calling from a diner,” she said.

She immediately asked for the man's employee number and said she wanted to speak with his supervisor.

The man hung up, and Burmingham figured she had heard the last of him, but a woman called her parents again that day, flogging the same story.

Thankfully, Burmingham said, her parents simply told the woman she would have to deal with their daughter and should call back later. She never did.

Burmingham contacted the RCMP's anti-fraud centre the next day. She learned her family was the target of the newest and most popular scam on the RCMP's radar.

According to police, the fraud usually involves an offer of antivirus software, which the caller says he or she can install over the phone, and then takes a credit card payment.

Those payments have been as low as $35, and as high as $469 and are debited to banks in Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Mauritius, the U.S. and Iceland, according to the RCMP.

Common indicators of this scam include an unsolicited call from a computer repair company or software creator such a Microsoft, requests for access to your computer, and urgent warnings that your computer is at risk.

"This is something that I think people should be aware of, especially with seniors,” Burmingham said.

"They are just so vulnerable – most of them aren't computer literate, they rely on their kids and grandkids to help them, so someone calling and saying they are an expert can be very convincing.”

It's not the first suspicious call Burmingham has fielded.

She was recently pestered by a telemarketer claiming to be from Bell Canada, and selling a device which is supposed to increase Internet capacity.

"I just told her, ‘I have an Internet provider. I'm not dealing with Bell,'” Burmingham said.

"She was very insistent, and called a number of times.”

Another Whitehorse resident contacted the Star last week to warn people of an almost identical telemarketing scam. This one purported to be affiliated with Northwestel Inc. and flogged a plug-in device that is supposed to increase Internet speed and access.

Northwestel does not promote any such product, according to company spokesperson Emily Yonker.