I just got off the phone with a girl who was literally crying because scammers got into her machine and all her immigration papers (with her SSN and everything) were right there on her desktop and may have been accessed/stolen.
I said scammers, not hackers. Nobody “hacks” into your computer any more. They don’t need to. They will literally call you on the phone and pretend to be IT and ask for access, passwords, whatever and most of the time? You’ll give it to them because you don’t know how the hell your computer works and they’re saying it’ll break if you don’t.
The scarier a message is, the more likely it is that it’s fake. If you get a call from someone “monitoring” your computer security you are either paying out the ass for that service, or more likely, it’s a scam.
The government will not call you. Apple will not call you. Microsoft will not call you. They do not give a single fuck whether your computer is infected. Your computer could be patient zero for the fucking black plague of computer viruses and literally no one gives a shit, I promise.
Also? Your bank will not email you asking you to verify your password, that doesn’t fucking happen, if you’re that worried, call your bank. NOT using the number in the suspicious email.
And do me a favor- if YOU know all this, call up your elderly relatives and make sure they know all this too? There’s nothing more fucking heartbreaking that having to try to talk a 90 year old man through changing aaaaallllllll his passwords when he barely knew how to use them in the first place, because some fast-talking asshole got him on the phone and convinced him he needed to fork over his banking passwords to keep his internets from being stolen.
I FUCKED UP ONCE
I got a call from some scammers saying they could help my computer deal with all its malware and viruses. I listened, cause I was naive and dumb and my computer DID have masses of issues. I gave them £50. My bank even queried it, but they’d told me to expect that so I casually said it was fine. Fortunately, my stepdad got home soon enough to tell me to turn the PC off /right then/, and spent an hour or so removing all the dodgy stuff they’d put on.
You know what was worse? They kept calling me/my family for like a year. They wouldn’t leave me alone.
listen to the psa
I fucked up once too. Luckily nothing happened because I turned my computer off fast enough but I tried to go to Youtube when I got redirected to another page with a popup and a voice recording (later I realized I had switched two letters in the URL and the assholes had bought the page to scam people like me). It said that they were part of Microsoft and that my computer had been affected by a virus that was stealing my bank info and all of my personal information. This was particularly scary for me because I had used my SSN on that computer to apply for college and they could have stolen it if they dug deep enough. I let them access my computer and then called my dad, who told me to shut it down immediately, which I did. They called me again and I had to block their number to stop them from contacting me. Luckily Microsoft, actual Microsoft, told me that the method they were using would have needed more time to take anything off my computer of importance, so I got of lucky.
But seriously. Microsoft, Apple, Verizon, you name it will never have a popup on your computer saying there is a virus. Your bank, the IRS, etc. will never call you or send you an email demanding your information or threatening to call the police on you. Be safe, please, and don’t let these scammers catch you unaware. If you are ever unsure about an email or call, find the actual contact information and ask them about it before proceeding.
if this ever happens to you and you have access to your online banking through the computer, you NEED to call your bank ASAP. it doesn’t matter if you explicitly gave them your login or even if you have your password saved, if they have access at all to your computer then they have access to your bank account.
CALL YOUR BANK SO THEY CAN DISABLE YOUR BANKING LOGINalso, your bank WILL NEVER RANDOMLY EMAIL OR CALL YOU TO ‘CONFIRM’ INFORMATION, NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR ONLINE BANKING PASSWORD, YOUR SSN, OR YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBERS VIA EMAIL OR IF ANYONE CALLS YOU OVER THE PHONE
Any online service to which you give money will probably have a way to report scammers, too. I got a scam email about someone hacking into my paypal account, which I probably would’ve fallen for if a friend hadn’t recently been fucked over by a similar scam and if paypal hadn’t recently changed their logo. I went to their website to check and they gave info on how to recognize if an email’s from paypal (for instance, they always address you by the name tied to your account, not as “user”) and an email address to forward scams to.
If you get an email or phone call like this, a legitimate company will not mind you taking time to verify their claims.
Also: the IRS will not email you from a live.com email address and threaten to ARREST YOU FOR TREASON unless you give them your tax returns RIGHT NOW
My dad once got a call from some scammers claiming that there’s something wrong with our computer. He was a Hindu and my dad literally argued with the guy for three minutes straight on the fact this guy’s name wasn’t Joseph. Imagine this going on:
Dad:“no no! Your name isn’t Joseph.”
Scammer (in heavy Hindu accent):“Yes I am! I am a Joseph!”
Thank god he didn’t tell him that he eats hamburgers.
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