Saturday morning I woke with brain fog, aching sore muscles and I still felt tired. I got up just before 10.00am had a cup of tea and a couple of cigarettes and my tablets, then the phone rang, the person stated he was from Windows Care 2 and they had noticed that I had been having problems with my computer as I had sent in a number of Error reports, which I had, I remember quite a few times this pop up had appeared asking whether I wanted to send in an error report and I had clicked, send.
The man on the phone told me to hold down the windows flag on the keyboard and press the letter "R" at the same time. I did this and he told me to enter a sequence of numbers, again I did this, he was telling me that my computer was sending out malicious emails and was under threat from being hacked. I was quite shocked and worried. He then asked me how old my computer was and I told him 8 years. He then told me to look at the screen and asked could I see all the red alerts and yellow triangles which were viruses. I looked at it all and I panicked. He then told me that because I had had my computer 8 years, the Windows operating System was out of license and that I had to pay £80 to get a new one or my computer would not work, it would just stop. He wanted all my details, date of birth, telephone number etc and I gave it all to him. Then he said a "pop up" would appear when payment had gone through paypal, and this "pop up" was their technician "Bob Ainsley" and I could chat to him about any concerns I had. Well this "pop up" came and took over using my mouse and it was amazing to watch, he went through all my computer and he typed "how lucky I was that I hadn't been hacked" but now it would be okay and that I had to "run" this programme every 15 days , he even pointed the arrow of the mouse to the icon I had to click on to do it.
They finished and I thanked them so much and that I was so grateful to them for ringing!
I thought I had better ring Bob and tell him all about it, well I rang Bob but had brain fog and couldn't remember what I had rang him for. About an hour later I was getting dressed and Jon arrived, we decided to go and watch Machynlleth play football, they lost 5-1 and we left about 5 minutes before the end as I was cold and tired.
Jon then went off to see Bob in Cemmaes and I went to bed for a couple of hours.
I woke up feeling brighter than in the morning, maybe the fresh air had helped.
I then remembered I needed to ring Bob, well I only got half way through the first sentence and he said," love you have been hacked" I argued and told him I hadn't, that it was Windows that had rang me etc, I told him how I had given them all my details and just as I said that I too realised.....yes I had been done and I had helped them and I had paid them £80!
It was as if the brain fog had lifted and I saw the light! With that I couldn't help it I cried and cried. Bob rang me back, he had borrowed a friends car and was coming up to the flat, he told me to shut the computer down.
He told me I needed to use another computer and change all my passwords to everything, so I got the keys to work and we went over and changed everything, bank account passwords, credit card passwords, store accounts, email passwords everything. I felt sick and so stupid, before when anyone rang me wanting personal details I always told them to write to me and then I would think about it.
I couldn't believe I had done it. I was lucky. I rang the telephone number they gave me and an Asian speaking lady on a voice machine informed me that all advisers were busy, no name of the company or welcome to Blah Blah Blah.
I went to bed feeling very tired and worn out.
Bob then took my computer home and took everything off it, he found the programme Windows Care 2 had put on and he put a Nortons virus protection on then ran that programme, over 800 viruses were on it.
He had to take everything off my computer, think it took him quite a few hours.
So everyone beware of phone calls especially the ones that ask for all your details and I won't be clicking "send error reports" either.
Sunday I woke early before 7.00am had a drink and cigarette and went back to bed till 2.00pm. I woke dripping with sweat, the sheet on my bed was soaking wet, so I stripped it off the bed and left the window open to air the mattress. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, I wished i had the energy to go out for a walk, but I didn't, all I managed to do was hang the sheet and duvet cover on the washing line. I lay on the sofa most of the day watching TV and sleeping. I thought of Bobby, he would be leaving Aberdeen soon and travelling through the night, he gets to Birmingham at 6.45am then waits for a train to Machynlleth, he gets here at 11.00am, I went to bed just after 9.00pm as I was so tired, I ached from head to foot. I woke at 3.00am desperate for a drink, so I had a can of coke to quench my thirst and decided to surprise Bobby by sending him a text. Can't wait to see him .
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