My dad ran into a scam on his computer, where it showed an ad that said his computer has been infected by malware, and to immediately contact Windows tech support to get it removed. The ad was even blaring a loud alarm audio, and included a phone number to call for said "tech support".
My parents are not exactly computer-savvy, so they immediately called me to come take a look at it, and I told them that it was a scam, and showed them how to restore the computer.
The scary part is, my dad actually called the phone number. Luckily, he was confused and hung up before he handed over any bank or credit card information, and instead opted for me to arrive and fix it for him.
In April earlier this year, there was a massive data breach with some criminal background data base company, and nearly 3 BILLION records, including social security numbers were leaked over the darknet. If you are American, chances are good you might have already been compromised.
Quick and dirty solution: Keep a hawk eye on your credit history. Ask the credit scoring companies to "freeze" your account to prevent anyone, including yourself, from opening any new loans or credit cards. Lock or freeze any credit cards that you don't use.
But yeah, please be careful out there. My dad dodged a bullet.
September 12th, 2024 at 03:35 pm 1726155329
I keep my three credit accounts frozen all the time now. I figure if I really need to I can do a quick thaw and then freeze again.
My sister, who is very naive financially, got taken by a scammer pretending to by PayPal. She lost everything in her bank accounts, and her credit cards were charged up, too. Thank goodness she got help from her bank and most of it was restored to her.
I already know I was one of the victims in that huge data breach, and just the other day I was informed that an ambulance company I used was hacked, and some of my information may have been leaked.
It's a bad old world.
September 13th, 2024 at 12:00 am 1726185632
But yeah, my cousins have been scammed for thousands, if not tens of thousands as well. Luckily, their credit card companies did help some, but still ended up paying thousands out of their own pockets.
We have to stay vigilant and stay safe out there.