I was scammed

It can happen to anyone, they say, and it happened to me. I got scammed by a computer caller who convinced me that I had huge problems on my computer.

He telephoned me on our land line, identified himself as a person calling from Microsoft Windows, saying my computer needed immediate attention. Well, I confess this got my attention so I kept listening and got drawn into his plan for "fixing" it and charging me a fee on my credit card.

It was distressing to me, to think that my computer was in distress, so I was vulnerable to such an indescribably vicious deed. I got on my cell phone and went through the steps with him which I thought were going to "fix" the problem. In reality, I was giving him information to allow him to change certain settings on my computer. Which he did.

He had what I call a middle-Eastern accent, very difficult to understand, so the conversation took up over an hour of my time, and what is worse, stole a large portion of my self-confidence, in the end, when I realized what I had fallen for. I gave him my credit card number, he gave me his name and phone number (yeah, right) and the charge was over $100. I suppose now that, if he could persuade a number of people to do what I did in falling for his diabolical plan, he could make several hundred dollars in a day and walk away smiling. He originally presented me with a more ambitious "plan" for saving my computer from hackers and harm, which would have cost more than double the amount, but my husband who was hearing my end of the lengthy conversation, objected, so he offered the less expensive alternative. I think now that he hurried to finish up because I obviously had an alert husband in the house and he wanted to "jerk the hook" before I got away.

When it was done and I was "satisfied" that my computer was now safe from harm, the caller went away. Now comes the good part. In a conversation with my daughter, she recognized what had happened, came over and was able to remove the changes he had made to my computer. It was all above my head, she is not a computer expert, but she knew what had happened and what to do about it. I immediately phoned our credit card company, explained the situation, got a new account with them, and the charge was never made to our account.

Daughter very compassionately explained to me that many people had been duped by similar calls, and fallen for such a scam, and that I should not feel, as I did just then, completely dumb and ill-equipped to own a computer. I will forever be grateful for her ability to handle the situation. She, once again, gets my what-would-I-do-without-you award. She also said, "Now Mom, Rich (her older brother) is your go-to guy on these things; he fixed the security system on your computer when you bought it, and you should yield to him and his expertise should this kind of thing happen again." That was greatly reassuring to me at a time when I needed whatever reassurance anyone could offer. She reminded me, as have several others since, that I should never give my credit card number to a person, if I had not initiated the call.

It was a fact that I "knew" but in the course of that conversation which I am now convinced was filled with a fear he had instilled in me over my computer and its workings, I found I didn't "know" so well, after all. It was another lesson in being careful of one's personal accounts.

The happy ending includes the fact that the charge was never made to our credit card account, and my computer is not full of hackings. Son Rich will check it over when he comes again soon, to make sure it is healthy and ready to work another while for me.

I received another call from the "jerk" or his cohorts a bit later, to say that I needed to okay the credit card charges again because they had been denied to him! (I say, hooray for the credit card folks at Discover.) So that gave me an opportunity to unload my frustration and anger on him, telling him that, no, I would not okay another charge, that I was on to his tricks, that my grown children were looking out for me and my computer, and that I knew he had played an ungodly trick on me. Or words to that effect. I finally had to simply hang up on him as he was trying his best to get me to okay the charge once again.

And, again, I received a phone call that I think was pertaining to the same thing, but this last time, I could barely hear the voice or the words of the caller so I immediately ended the call. Hopefully, that will be the final time I ever hear from the "Microsoft Windows" scammer.

So, to sum up, I was scammed. But thanks to my children, I was unscathed and learned some valuable lessons. To anyone who might be tempted to "fall for" such a caller in their home, I encourage you to simply hang up. Quickly. I think my generation, especially, has learned to be polite to people, even those we cannot see and don't know and don't really owe anything to, and in this case that attitude of pleasantness and politeness did me no favors. You hold the power and you didn't ask for their "help" so tell them to go on down the road. Or use your own choice of words.

-- Jan Mullikin is a Siloam Springs resident and former employee of the Herald-Leader. She can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Community on 08/20/2014