Warning…You’ve Been Hacked!

OPINION

By Louise Gliatto

I was looking at all my conservative news sites when suddenly my computer screen was flashing and frozen saying Microsoft Defender had detected a destructive virus.  I didn’t question the warning because I had been told by Best Buy that my new computer had been installed with Microsoft Defender.

I called the number on the screen. I was informed by a woman with a very heavy Indian accent that I had been hacked by Tinba, which is a trojan that infects end-user devices and attempts to compromise their financial accounts and steal funds. The hacker had used my savings to purchase thousands of dollars of Bitcoin. The tech support woman asked for my bank’s name and phone number. She contacted the bank’s fraud unit and asked for a red alert to be placed on my account. I was then contacted via phone by Victor who identified himself as part of the fraud unit from Mechanics bank.  I was told the only way to interrupt the theft was to do a same exact transaction so that the wiring service from the bank would question both transactions which would then allow me to cancel them both. This had to be done immediately so the hacker would not be alerted to stop me from canceling the purchase. In the meantime, while I was on hold with the bank’s fraud unit, I kept seeing that a Dr. Hill from an unknown area code was calling me every few minutes.  I finally out of curiosity (while on hold with the fraud unit) took his call.  The caller turned out to be a woman with a New York accent who told me she knew I was on the phone with hackers who were pretending to be from Microsoft.  Lacy from New York told me she was from a victim’s defense organization.  Then my door bell rings and officer Elliott from YPD who informed me he had been requested by dispatch to do a wellness check because I wasn’t answering my phone. I assured him I was fine. He left.  Fifteen minutes later while I’m on the phone with the Fraud unit writing down instructions on how to cancel the purchase of bitcoin, my door bell rings again.   It was officer Elliott from YPD.  He told me to put whoever I was talking to on hold and step outside without my phone. He informed me that YPD had been requested by Victim’s Defenders from New York to warn me that the hackers were those pretending to be from Microsoft. I told him at this point I didn’t know who the real hacker was.  Officer Elliot told me he didn’t know either but doubted the hacker would call the police! He told me to turn off the phone and shut down my computer and go immediately to my bank!! While I was at the bank, Victim Defense called to warn that the hackers had placed a remote app on my phone (my phone had been hacked too) which she and the bank manager removed. 

It turns out that the people from victims’ outreach troll the scammers!  That’s how they got my name and phone number. Who would have thought they were looking out for someone in little Yreka!!

The volunteers at this organization had nothing but glowing praise for the Yreka police dept. for their cooperation and assistance as do I.  We are so lucky to have such a good and caring police department in Yreka.

A happy ending and a very special thanks to YPD, officer Elliott and “International Victims Outreach (IVOS) for alerting me to the real scammers and for stopping the theft of my life savings.

Go to vicoutreach.org webpage for information about this wonderful organization.

Warning… you have been hacked…follow up to my “hacking story” from last month. 

I frequent conservative news sites on the internet and do lots of research on controversial topics which has left me open to frequent hacking attempts.   I have geek squad insurance though “Best Buy” in Medford.  They have instructed me on how to “unfreeze” my computer when these bad actors try to hack me.  DO NOT call the number on the screen, they are the Hackers!!

Here is what you can do…click on ctrl (control), Alt and del (delete)  at the same time.  A widow will open, click on “task manager”.  Another screen will open.  Go to the top of page and take your mouse and delete the last site you were on.  Like magic, your screen and computer are unfrozen.  You have defeated the bad guys!!  Please share this widely .