Quick turn around on posts, but as this story happened last night, its fresh, lets digest it.
Late last evening I was laying in bed watching king of the hill per the usual. When my phone rings, I look at my galaxy watch and see a number I don't recognize. I answer simply because if its a scammer, I am going to harass them for a solid hour for the protection of everyone else. Every second they are talking to me, is a second they aren't harassing grandma.
I pick up and hear an elderly old woman say Hello, the audio was slightly distorted, didn't know what or who this was, so I simply ask "yes?"
"Ryan its your grandmother!!!" and the audio got better. I think she was eating something when she called. Surprised I didn't have my grandmothers phone number, but doubly surprised she was calling me at 8:30 at night. My grandma calls usually when her computer isn't working and needs help, this prompted me to install team viewer on her PC a few months back, saves me some headaches. As soon as she said it was her, I jumped out of bed and turned on my desktop.
"Whats up grandma?" I asked. And she proceeded to ask me what a green dot money order was because she needed one. Working in IT and knowing what happens in this world means... this is now how you start a conversation with me... what did she do?
As soon as she paused I chimed in "Mom-Mom that's a scammer you've been...." and she cut me off, "you have to listen to my story first" she said. "he probably was scammer, that jerk" she laughed a bit and said "but he was so nice."
He was nice? Those were the words that stuck with me, was that it?
She continued on, "yeah he told me the microsoft servers alerted them that I was having problems, which I was, and he needed to get into to fix them, so I did what he said and he started moving my mouse around and told me I needed windows 7 ultimate and it would take a few hours for him to finish fixing it, so I let him."
After a few hours he called her back.... and told her she needed to go to a specific gas station around the corner from her because THEY work with Microsoft and help their customers out with green dot cards. Um... they have her geo-location... is this getting any creepier yet? The PC is LOCKED until you "enter a code" you get from a green dot card, THAT MUST BE PAID FOR WITH CASH!!! $300 CASH!!! Told her where the closest ATM was to her and instructed her what to do.
It wasn't until this point she was concerned, she thought Microsoft had a server that alerts of problems? No, her concern is this... I have team-viewer on her computer, she was afraid the viruses she had leaped over it and the jackass who was in my grandmothers computer would've come through.
Moral of the story?
MICROSOFT DOES NOT CALL YOU THEY DON'T CARE!!!
DON'T GIVE ANYONE REMOTE ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER IF YOU DON'T KNOW THEM!!!
DO NOT SET IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO AUTOMATIC!!!!
REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORDS AND MAKE SURE YOU CAN REMEMBER THEM, SEE MY LAST POSTS FOR HELP WITH THIS!!!!
I'm going to have a long night ahead of me folks. But until next post, stay safe my goblins.
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