Let me begin by saying how grateful I am to have the tools of Al-Anon during this challenging ordeal.  I didn't lose my sanity, nor sleep.  I was able to see that I played a big part in this and was able to actually pray for the scammers. 

Here's the story:

As some of you have read from my post on Feb. 2nd, I was scammed and had to shut down my laptop.

I got a call from a male who sounded as though he was from India.  He had a thick accent.  He knew my name and said that he was from "Windows service center." 

He told me that they had been notified that my computer was showing a lot of "errors" and that files have been downloaded onto my computer without my awareness/consent.  Of course, he was going to help me fix the problem.

Throughout the phone call, I kept asking him questions and my gut kept saying "this isn't right!  Hang up and call Windows tomorrow."  But no.... I ignored my gut instinct.  Fear took over.  I had been without my computer for over a month during the holidays.  It was no fun and didn't want to experience that again.  Plus it was rather costly ($350). 

So with fear in my heart that overrode my instincts, I followed his instructions.  He led me to a website called ammyy.com and told me to download the free software.  This software enables him to take control of my laptop (I didn't realize this until after I downloaded it.)

Once he had remote control of my laptop, he dropped the call (hung up).

I knew I was had.  So I made a police report immediately.  Police officer said that by doing so I would not be liable if they purchased anything with our credit cards or bank accounts.

I didn't stop there, however.  I called out credit card companies and cancelled the cards.  I had new ones issued.  I also went to the banks the next day (taking off work) and had them deactivate out online banking.

Then I headed to the computer shop to get help on how to clean up my computer.  I got my computer back yesterday; that was $150.  I lost everything on my computer.  It's as though I have a new computer.  Fortunately, I can load the software back on that came with the laptop, such as Microsoft Office.

When I went to hook the laptop back to the Net, I discovered the modem was not working.  Called a support tech.  He says that it's my modem.  So go to Best Buy today and thrown down $75 for a new modem.

It's all working now.

I would like to spare others who might fall prey to these scammers.  I fell hard because just about a month ago I sent my laptop back to Dell to have some parts replaced (hubby spilt coffee on keyboard).  When I got the laptop back, things weren't exactly the same as when I had shipped it.  So I figured that Dell might have accidently installed something wrong....

I feel might ignorant. 

So.......... please pass on the word.  Searching Google on this topic, I discovered this scam has been going on for a while.  Here's a few youtube videos that you might want to pass along to your friends and loved ones.  The more awareness, the less damage they will do.

Here are a few links to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdbFuxRlqCo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cueN1-2lANA