HACKED & HIJACKED

 

Suspicious activity was going on and I ignored it for too long. I had an anti-virus after all so I felt safe. But the kicker came when my monthly credit card statement arrived in my email. The amount looked correct. I wasn't immediately concerned. But when I attempted to log in I was informed I needed to change my password. However instead of just the last 4 digits of my SS & card no. they wanted all!

I believed that I was dealing with my C.C. co. so like a fool I gave it! Then I was informed they had no record of me as a client. I've had this card for over 20 yrs and use it to pay bills. To say the least now I was alarmed!

I called the 800 no. on the back of the card repeatedly and kept getting some woman on a recorded line trying to sell me a medical alert bracelet asking "Can you hear me?" -- I've been warned this is a scam and hung up each time.

Fortunately I was able to contact my C.C. co. thru another site. We went to the email and suddenly my computer mouse took on a life of its own! I found myself struggling for control of it. Later I learned this was not my imagination! Thankfully my card was cancelled and a new one issued.

My tech man made an emergency trip over here. He went thru everything and we changed passwords. He told me he didn't think I was hacked. "It's impossible to hack a landline," he said. But this is untrue.

I wrote on Facebook I suspected that I was hacked. Immediately all sorts of strangers were posting on my timeline offering aide and advice. I would like to believe all of them were pure of heart with only good intentions, but I know better. I looked at their profiles and it wouldn't surprise me if they all had prison records. Every single one I blocked. Even if they'd had the faces of angels I would never have trusted them.

Then I Googled: How to tell if you've been hacked. As I'm reading I'm checking off all the boxes in my head. I WAS HACKED!!!

Now I was part of a club. Two dear friends of mine were also hacked, one recently. They pointed me in the right direction to a tech service here in Vero that specializes in dealing with hackers. The service came and picked up my computer. And thru my friend Sue I got a better qualified tech man. We sat down and changed my passwords again.

Also I went thru my Facebook followers list. To my horror I discovered that every sketchy person whose friendship request I'd rejected was there along with obvious romantic scammers I'd also rejected. In the future I must remember not just to delete, but block when these appear.

Plus I found numerous strangers of questionable character, many from third world countries who had attached themselves to me like warts.

Out of nowhere a new follower appeared at the top of the page. I went to his profile. He was a young guy under the heading: Professional Hacker, no friends were listed. Why would anyone advertise themselves this way? It's tantamount to someone walking thru a public parking lot holding a sign saying: Professional Car Thief! Needless to say, I blocked him immediately.

Other millennials were among my followers as well, this was a red flag! I'm over 70 and not someone a person of that age would find particularly interesting, except for maybe what they could take from me, such as my credit card and SS numbers.

I went thru my followers list with an axe, (figuratively speaking) probably offing a number of innocent people in the process but the collateral damage was necessary.

Suddenly I was abruptly blocked from blocking and these people all needed to disappear! Fortunately I found a way. It was more time consuming but needed to be done. Anyway this whole ordeal had proved costly in both time and money.

If I ran the world all hackers would die (literally) slowly and painfully as possible. These people are human scum!