Virus

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After work yesterday I was on the computer and some popups told me that the computer got a virus and hackers could access my financial accounts and emails. It told me to purchase (something) and I did. $64. Even after wasting the cash, popups still came. Panicked and scared as f**k.

Today 10:45am the popups told me to phone a certain number and I did. He told me to do some things on the phone and computer and I tried to follow instructions but I am bad at computers and he has a thick accent. He put me on hold a couple times for about half hour each. Good thing I didn't have to work today. Nothing else to do either. It was quite frustrating that I couldn't understand what he said or I wasn't good enough at computers to do it. That continued until 6pm today. (never would have imagined that it would take so long. My computer got viruses before and I never had to dial the phone).

Thus far he seemed patient, verbally fluent, kind, and et cetera. (I am paranoid that he was also a scammer. I have never done this before and I am bad at computers so I tried to understand what he said but I don't know enough to know if it is justified or whatever).

But my sister told me that if I bother her again she will sell the house I live in and then I have to pay rent and I earn minimum wage and can't afford rent. So I didn't bother my sister, even though she is much better at computers and communication than me

And I don't have "friends" to bother either

(Plenty of people are much worse at English and computers than me. How do they deal with viruses?)

The professional was nice and said "sweet dreams". He did not speak clearly but he appeared pretty knowledgeable.

Then he told me that what he is doing on the computer takes 24 hours and I have to take a day to work tomorrow and the company will pay me back wages. (For some reason I am suspicious that he is a scammer also, but sooner or later you have to trust someone to do something so wtf ever)

Maybe he will tell me to take off work the day after tomorrow too. Been working the current job 2 years and 11 months and have never used sick time, not even when I was sick

The whole thing makes me want to vomit.

Stress, strain, scared, jealous, annoyed, angry, confused, hateful

It reminds me of the commercial for LifeLock. Maybe I should get LifeLock

Besides plenty of people drive cars and they barely speak English. When they have to interact with the cops or whatever, how do they do it? They can't just rely on Google Translator

The whole thing is a three ring circus

Also I hate talking on the phone especially long conversations

f**k the hacker

Do not call the numbers any more. Do not pay them. The number they have you call IS the hacker. The more you call them and do what they say, the more you're being scammed.

You should have just closed the pop-ups.

If you paid them with a credit or debit card, report the card as compromised and get a new one.

Format the computer and reinstall the OS.

Those fake ads are done up as social engineering to scare people into calling them thinking that they have a virus or worst and will scam you are butt load of money. Check out the youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@JimBrowning/videos he has actually got some scam groups busted and raided

Edit:

Apologies, I forget not everyone knows how to do computer stuff.

Take the computer to a local repair shop, have them back-up your data, and either clean out any malware or fishy software, or format and reinstall the OS.

Uncommon denominator

Thank you very much for your advice

The next day he had the nerve to tell me to go to the bank and withdraw twenty four thousand bucks cash. That was when I got suspicious that it was a hacker

Thank Buddha I did not withdraw cash.

It turned out it was a hacker

Cash lost:
Computer repair
Seven hour long distance phone call
McAfee
One day of wages
Public transportation

Indirect cash lost:
Bank returned check
Bank late fees

Time lost at bank trying to set up new account

Had to interact with a lot of professionals that I would rather not have had to interact with:

Bank
Credit card
Sister and her husband
Librarian
Work, human resources and bookkeeping and assistant manager.


Yes I lost some cash because of the hacker, but thank Buddha the hacker didn't receive any of the cash

Also I lost a lot less cash than the hacker was trying to take from me

It's been three and a half weeks since the popup came on the computer that said that it got a virus

Been obsessive compulsively checking my credit card and bank accounts. It seems too good to be true that I still have cash in my accounts.

Because I thought the hacker took it all

Also, been uptight lately, even more than usual

Constantly paranoid someone will try and succeed at:

Framing me up for a felony and getting me sent to jail

Getting the boss to make my worthless corpse redundant

Taking out a civil lawsuit against me

Physically injure me

_______________________________

Also it occurred to me that I am bad at computers and maybe that made it easier to get hacked

But then the librarian was telling a customer that a web site address is not the same thing as an email address.

Plenty of people are much worse at computers than me and not all of them get hacked

So whatever

Maybe I should just be less trusting and receptive

Plenty of times precious lil "people" had the nerve to refuse to believe the slightest thing I said, even though it was correct, and there was nothing at stake for them


Common sense


So grateful the hacker didn't nickel and dime my worthless corpse for any or all of my chump change


Thank you very much for your reply to my original post, uncommon denominator

Never ring anyone following a warning of computer viruses in a pop-up. Don't even click the pop-up in the first place.

Don't ever give your credit or debit card details out to anyone over the phone. Literally not anyone, not even someone claiming to be your bank (a sure scam).

Think about installing an internet security software package, and figure out how to use it. If you can afford it, pay for one as they are usually better and are not just an antivirus, but come with an enhanced firewall plus other features.

Blitzkrieg

Wish I had that advice four weeks ago

Try getting Malwarebytes free and run a scan with it.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

What version of windows are you on and are you running the free windows defender and is windows firewall turned on?

If you're on anything older than Windows 10 you should consider upgrading.

Yes it's a problem these days. Computers these days are sold to lay people who don't know the technical side of the machines. It wouldn't matter if software always worked fine and hacking attacks never happened.

I think uncommondenominator's advice to take it to a repair shop is probably the best thing. But if they have to reload Windows (and a lot of places will do that no matter what you say because it's quicker for them than it would be to surgically remove the virus), then any good programs you've installed will be gone and you'll have to reinstall them, if that's even possible.

Well, use the advice going forward and try not to worry about having money stolen from your bank.

If you have given out any credit or debit card details to scammers, then you should get the card replaced with a new one.

You are quite welcome.

Other members are correct in that, if you are running anything older than Win10, you should upgrade to Win10, cos anything older no longer receives security updates.

If you have Win7, Win8, or Win8.1, upgrading to Win10 is free. The same product key for 7/8/8.1 can activate 10. It's an upgrade Microsoft offered a while back, and still does.

Malwarebytes is, sadly, mostly useless - as are many current antivirus programs. A current version of windows, and windows Defender / Firewall protect most people from most things.

Either way, a PC shop should be able to help you out. Do not go to Geek Squad...