Page 9 - July 2018

(Continued from page 8) each card, the “hack-ware” would be uninstalled!
$50!” On and on. I asked Daniel, “What’s going
on?”
He answered, “Nothing, I’m fixing your comput-
er!” I answered, “Money is being taken from
PayPal!” He replied “Don’t worry! It’s so we can
give you your refund!”
I said, “Not from what I see! Goodbye!” and I
pulled the plug! I immediately called PayPal, and
stopped the $450 in Gift Card charges! Then I
called my Bank and put a freeze on all my credit
cards. Remember, Equifax had been hacked the
week before, so they were NO HELP!
Then I called Amazon, where I spend much of
my money. They informed me they had “denied”
a charge for a $500 gift card (because I had
never ordered something like that before, and
they were trying to contact me to verify, but my
computer and two phones were all in use – it’s
called “profiling”.)
I called my friend, Chuck, at the Computer Club
and he told me to bring my computer over (the
Tuesday Repair SIG – Special Interest Group,
had just started). I brought it over and when the
guys started up my computer it required a pass-
word (which I had not made) to enter.
This is called RANSOMEWARE – They lock up
or scramble your computer and make you pay a
fee to release your computer from their control!
Chuck, and the other guys, took out the hard
drive, did something to it to remove the pass- get in touch with a members’ friend or relative.
word, and then I got my external hard drive and
we restored the computer to BEFORE this inci-
dent began.
In the meantime, Daniel called five times and
told me to buy three $100 iTunes gift cards, and
when I put in the pin numbers from the back of
9
He had already taken $299.99 in payment for his
services, tried to buy $450 in PayPal gift cards,
tried to purchase a $500 gift card from Amazon,
and now he wanted $300 more? Nope! So now,
two weeks later, I’ve restored my main comput-
er, the email is working fine, I’m currently restor-
ing my second laptop because I also allowed
Daniel to check those email settings. I’ve
changed all my credit cards and my passwords
and I’m exhausted. I haven’t lost any of the
“charges” yet, because they are all in “dispute,”
and because PayPal, Amazon and my bank
worked quickly, and I’m disputing the initial
charge of $299.99.
If that’s the price I must pay, “A lesson learned,
is a lesson earned!” and maybe someone can
benefit from this experience. REMEMBER – I
called Daniel because my trusted Internet Pro-
vider GAVE ME THE PHONE NUMBER!
The only people SCSCC members should let
into their computers are our Computer Club’s
Repair SIG which meets every Tuesday from 1
to 4 pm in the Computer Club Classroom at the
Pinnacle, and the only requirement is joining the
Computer Club! They know what they are doing,
and they live HERE!”
From Judy: This article leads into a great discus-
sion with your group members on who they trust
to work on their computers, and why. If a mem-
ber doesn’t have a trusted person, they might
think about introducing themselves to another
member’s trusted person. I, personally, wouldn’t