Yes, I have been hacked! Criminals accessed my computer somehow and then accessed our bank accounts and started moving money in and out in large amounts!
It started with a dreaded pop-up box that froze my computer with a big error message that said to call Microsoft Security and gave a phone number. Foolishly I called them, thinking that Microsoft would be trustworthy. It was entirely a false name and false number.
They told me that a fee of $799.00 had already been taken from our accounts, but they would refund it, and told me to go to our banking page and check - I did and presto, they were into all our accounts and it was all my fault! The bankers told us that the online banking pages they showed us would have been fictitious as well.
Last Thursday we spent 3 hours in a meeting with two bankers, submitting a fraud report, getting assigned all new accounts, and applying for new credit cards. Then I turned to changing the records for all automatic payments OUT of our accounts, and all the automatic deposits INTO our accounts. Very little of this is easy, requiring me to master the basics of two-factor authentication and the Verified.Me app. Technology evolves, but just gets more complex!
At the moment I'm slowly working through changing all these records, As I might have guessed payments OUT of our accounts are fairly easy to change. But try to change payments INTO your account! The wait time for the Canada Pension Plan is currently over an hour, just to get your phone answered. It's frustrating!!!
All of this has to take priority over blog posts, but I will be back soon, with a list of things you can do to protect yourself.
oooooh fg, i am so sorry this happened to you, what a mess....
ReplyDeletei hope the bank is able to help you get through this, and that the people at the bank are kind and helpful!!!! i will keep checking back, in hopes of reading good news and that this mess is all straightened out!!
I hope for better news as the HUGE problem gets solved. Meantime, stay warm and try to keep calm.
ReplyDeleteOh how horrible! I do hope that you will be able to get through this without too much loss. My husband has taught me to NEVER click on any of those fraud things. Please know that you are much in my thoughts and pray those terrible people learn that karma is real. :-(
ReplyDeleteSorry about all the trouble.
ReplyDeleteThat is one nasty piece of rotten luck Stu. I think many of us out here have made similar mistakes over the years. It seems to come with the territory in this complex computer era we are all living in. Crooks and thieves are everywhere. What impresses me is your attitude after all this and your willingness to comprise a list to help others not have this happen to them. Doing that says much for your character.
ReplyDeleteOn no that is just awful. Hope things get straightened out soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that someone has decided to steal from . It's a horrible feeling. I hope things get fixed up . There are some very tempting things you could get persuaded to bite on.
ReplyDeleteOh no, that is dreadful. It can happen so easily, one incorrect click can lead to a huge mess. I'm so hesitant to open e-mails, even from my bank that I tend to call their customer service line to ensure it is real and not spam.
ReplyDeleteWe fell into that same trap a few years ago, my fault, but at least they didn't get into our bank accounts and we got our 700$ back. That is horrible! Your recommendations will be appreciated. Good luck with it all.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry. We changed banks this year and it was the same with CPP getting moved over. What a pain.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's why we don't do any banking or mutual fund or stock trading on-line. They can't hack what isn't there. My condolences and hopes that you haven't actually lost anything other than time and frustration.
ReplyDeleteOh my I am so sorry this has happened to you. Thank you for sharing your situation and I look forward to hearing the outcome and your pointers.
ReplyDeleteHow awful!
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