Galileo
Footballguy
My 82 yr old mother fell victim to some scam late yesterday afternoon. The callers apparently persuaded her that she was due a refund for some sort of service my father apparently had ordered in the past. I don't know all the details as I was not there, but clearly my mother allowed them to access and control her computer remotely. She basically led them to a bank account jointly owned with my father under the guise of depositing the refund money into the account. In the process they had her fill out some type of form and when she entered the amount of $300 an extra zero popped up to make it $3000. Somewhere around this point she finally realized (albeit much too late) that this wasn't legit. The scammer on the phone was apparently claiming to be upset with her for stealing $3000...I am sure all of this was just to add confusion to the situation. She described her computer as going crazy (Toshiba laptop running Windows 7). She said things were opening and closing...She tried to turn it off, but she claimed they would start it right back up again. By the time I got there, her computer would only boot up to a log in screen requiring a password. Problem is she doesn't have a password. Normally, it would boot right up to the desktop.
A couple things...
1. Aside from the clearly compromised bank account, I should assume these scammers basically got a hold of anything that may have been on her computer, correct?
2. Is there any concern about these people being able to have continued access to the computer without her knowledge when it is online? I assume she had to do something from her end to allow that access initially, but what about moving forward now that they have already been in?
3. What about this password log in issue? I googled it and found some stuff about using the system repair disc or a password reset disc, but we don't have any of that.
A couple things...
1. Aside from the clearly compromised bank account, I should assume these scammers basically got a hold of anything that may have been on her computer, correct?
2. Is there any concern about these people being able to have continued access to the computer without her knowledge when it is online? I assume she had to do something from her end to allow that access initially, but what about moving forward now that they have already been in?
3. What about this password log in issue? I googled it and found some stuff about using the system repair disc or a password reset disc, but we don't have any of that.