Scam Alert for the Gullible

Tired and in a hurry. These enemies of rational thought caused me to jump right down the rabbit hole into a scam.

Bottom line: be careful of the various websites that claim to be Wal-Mart.  I was price-checking with retail, Amazon, Wayfair, and Overstock, almost ready to leave the house to shop. The screen went white and a box of warning computer-ese print appeared with a Microsoft logo and telephone number.

"Crud." The print explained that my computer had been overtaken, hijacked, taken by ransom-ware, hacked. In a lower right-hand side box, Microsoft advised to call the toll-free number to take care of the problem. I tried to X-out, close the window, do everything I could think of and nothing worked. (I could not find the OFF button.) Every attempt to shut-down brought more panic on my part. Completely unnerved. I called.

A person answered the phone (should have been a tip!) and, after my technical explanation, he sympathized with me (!) and gave me a code to type in so he could help me because "That is horrible," he said. It went downhill from there. The man overtook my computer. I said, “How do I know you aren’t the hacker?” “Because,” he said, “if I wanted to, I could have all your information in 5 seconds. But if you doubt me, I’ll take you to the Microsoft web site and show you my credentials.” Which he did.  

I was not convinced of these name-serial number-code number and accounts because he had a bad spelling problem (but who am I to charge you with hacking because you miss-type “moderm” and can't spell your own last name) If anyone would have permission to misspell Morrison, it would be Jim or Bill.  Jay Morisson from Tx.

At one point, this scam artist got past my Webroot security system and told me Webroot was “incompatible” with Microsoft. Then he said, “For $149, I can fix your computer and give you a contract for free service for one computer forever. For two computers, it’ll be $199.” I was sure I had a shyster on my cell phone. I told him, “I’m not paying you anything.” 

“Are you saying you don’t want to clean and protect your computer?” 

“My computer is protected and I am hanging up.” Which I did. 

Shaking and angry, I called the Geeks who told me that most likely nothing was tampered with on my computer; it was a money scam and they had heard of this ploy. I took this new computer to them and the Geeks made sure all was well. They told me that when I typed in the code, that code opened the door to my computer.

 I’m not that stupid, but gullible is altogether different. Seeing a Microsoft logo, having not clicked on any questionable website, I was taken by surprise. At least, I stopped before I gave Jay Morisson any credit card numbers.

Beware of letting down your guard. Scams happen.