We had a major phishing attack last Monday. They somehow had the PayPal app pop up to tell me someone was requesting money. If I didn’t recognize the request to call, I should call this number. I didn’t completely trust it, so I logged on to the Website. There I saw the same message, and now there was a second request as well. The website also had the same number, so it must be legitimate, right? (This is a screen shot of the notice from the website.)
It looked as if they had paid the first one. I don’t know how they did it, but the website was really the criminals. Either they made my computer navigate to a phony website or they hacked into PayPal and put this up. We called.
The person on the phone had an accent...Asian, I would guess, but I can't be any more specific, because I can't tell the difference well enough. I could hear lots of voices in the background, so it was some kind of call center. Typical, we thought, for a call center for a big company. They claimed they wanted to give us a refund and had us download an app that would facilitate this. Partway through the interaction with the thieves, I started to get suspicious and began passing notes to Charlie. They pretended that Charlie put in the wrong amount of the refund, and instead of the $698.99, it went to $10,000. The person got upset and wanted us to give them back the balance. To do that, we would have to buy gift cards. Both of us would have to go to a bunch of different stores and get the maximum amount allowable for a gift card for each. BIG RED FLAG! While Charlie was talking with the thief, I went into the other room and called the trusted number I had used before for PayPal, using his phone, because he was still on mine.
PayPal had the same requests for money from my account, only by then there were 10 more. The representative told me not to get the gift cards. That isn't how they do business.
After we hung up with the thieves, we called both of our credit unions. The $10,000 we saw appearing in Charlie's checking account had come from our line of credit. They transferred it back and told us the crooks would have had it out within minutes. We kept getting calls from 402-935-7733, ten during the afternoon and several the next day. I have YouMail screen my calls, and the phone only rings if the number is in my contacts. Sometimes the YouMail app has additional information, or the person calling leaves a voicemail, so I went and looked. Somehow, the number had identified itself as PayPal, but it wasn't, because I called MY number for PayPal and asked them if that was one of their numbers. I marked it as spam in YouMail with a note that it was NOT PayPal but phishing. This will go into their system, so all of YouMail's customers should be protected, at least until the scammers get a new number. (I have the free version of the app, but you can pay for more features.)
After we got off the phone with our banks, I called Apple to see if they could check my computer remotely. They could and did. They found the software involved and we got it deleted. They checked the whole laptop in the places where something could be hiding. All should be good. Next, we had to deal with more fallout from our bank accounts. We have direct deposit for our Social Security checks, and we had to close our checking accounts. That required contacting Social Security to get the switch made. I couldn't get into my online account, so I had to call. The first agent said we needed more information from my bank, so I had to call the bank and then try again. Each time I was on hold for close to an hour.
The dogs go to the groomer tomorrow, and we have to pay with a check, but my bank said the checks hadn't been mailed yet. I was afraid we were going to have to cancel, but we have an account with a local credit union that has a small amount of money in it. We decided I could write the check on that account and then replace the money when my new checks come.
I'm still working on the new book, but I didn't get much done on it this week. On top of that, I had no knitting time.
The Wisconsin kids had their dance recital on Sunday. Here's Zachary:
Here's Daphne and Zachary hamming it up together.
Meanwhile, Johan is enjoying his new role as baseball player.
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: I had planned on a new story this week, but that didn't happen. This is another reedited story: Billy feels bad because he didn't help a classmate who wanted to copy his answers. Now he wonders why he was reluctant to help. Veronika helps him see why what he did was right and how he can help that doll better in the future in Getting the Answers.
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