Description

I was trying to contact Wayfair for a bathtub that was going to arrive too late. I typed "Wayfair customer support" in Google and I was directed to a fake site, which looked like Wayfair and was giving me a phone number to call for support: 838-221-7153. I called that number, and talked to a man, who introduced himself as Salvatore at extension 2703 (in case we got disconnected), who was basically a hacker. Under the pretense of helping me faster with my issue, he said it would be easier if he helped me install an app on my computer. With my help, he installed a client server on my machine, and took possession of my computer. The screen went dark, and every so often he told me to use my fingerprint. He would keep talking on the phone, giving me updates as to how the case was progressing. He even gave me a Fedex number, so I could track my package. After a while, I told them I needed my computer back, that it was taking too long, so they played an elevator music to calm me down. By then, I felt something was wrong. I turned my computer off, despite their warning that it would damage it. The screen was not dark any longer and I could see that all my tabs had been closed and 10 new ones were opened: Bank of America, American Express, Target, Best Buy, Wayfair, Venmo, PayPal, so many more. And then the screen went black again. I turned the computer off again, and focused to try and remember how to get to the place where the client server had been installed. I turned it back on, and went straight to the apps. I disabled the client server and they were gone. I felt like I had just won a battle, but the aftermath was terrible! This entre interaction lasted 40 minutes. It was enough for him to get into my bank account, get a hold of two of my credit cards (American Express and Bank of America) and one of my debit cards (Bank of America). They racked up charges on Venmo, PayPal, and directly from my bank accounts. A day after everything happened, I realized that my email accounts were being transferred to another unknown email address and that my email password had been modified. It took me a while to get this access back. All entities have reimbursed me so far, except PayPal. They said the transactions took place on a secure device (indeed, it was my computer) and that the gift cards were then sent to my email address (possibly, but my email address was forwarded to another email: daniela. [email protected]) and I have never purchased an online gift card in my life so this is not something I was looking for. I was more focused on securing my credit and stopping the hemorrhage.