My dad has fallen for one of those computer scams where he was contacted remotely and told he has numerous computer problems and that scammers have infiltrated his computer and this guy says he can fix it for $500. He only accepts a bank draft. So my father wants to go the bank on Tuesday to do this. He insists it is not a scam because he worked on the computer for 3 hours and won't listen to anyone who says it's a scam. He will eventually find someone to drive him. He has many friends. What can be done?
First, as another user said lock his credit reports, all 3 of them, from a different computer. It’s not up for discussion and gets done IMMEDIATELY. And you need to renew the locks as some of them are time-limited.
Second, that computer is now DOA, it gets replaced / reformatted. No one, especially not your “expert friend”, can find every possible bit of malware.
Third, go into his bank accounts, credit cards, etc., set up notifications for anything above a certain limit, and whatever else they offer.
Fourth, he gets a credit card, with a smaller limit, if you can. That can be hard to do, but it can mitigate the crazy.
Further, and this is the worst part, but just as important as everything else,
* All passwords get changed. If he doesn’t have a password manager, likely not, everything gets recreated, even if he had a password manager. Too bad. He had access to the computer, he could have easily downloaded the information.
* Account emails get changed, ie. the email used to create the account.
* I would change my login ID’s, if possible too.
* If the website has security questions, those get changed too. Don’t answer, “where was I born” with the city he was born in, change it to something made up.
* Do the high priority stuff, first, investments, banks, loans, credit cards, shopping, but, eventually, as in as soon as you can, everything.
Finally, dad just lost his financial privileges. This can be hard in all kinds of ways, but that’s how it is after this. He can’t be trusted any more. This is dumb as F***.
For the record, I’ve done dumb things, I’ve been hacked multiple times, my personal information was given away by Anthem 3 times, plus other places that I know of. I’ve had charges just appear on credit cards too, but so far, my identity hasn’t been used. Identity theft, can be an absolute nightmare to deal with, and law enforcement won’t do bleep for you.
Do you have financial power of attorney? If not you should get it.
That's the problem letting others have complete access to all your personal information. They do things in his name and he gets to prove it wasn't him. Identity theft is a major pain to deal with and if he is dying, do you really want him to have to deal with something like this?
Just saying, because I can't imagine the nightmare it could create for all of you.
Best of luck.
If your dad has no assets then what are you worried about?
Does your dad receive Social Security into his bank account? Does dad have a bank account?
I’m sure the scammer will be happy to wait until his check comes in. Does dad need his SS to pay his utilities, buy his meds, buy his food?
Were you planning to start paying for all that for him?
Maybe I’m missing something here. 🤔
Dads computer and ALL of his assets need protecting from whatever took this scammer 3 hours to do.
The bank probably won't intervene, you need to help him, even if that means getting a trusted friend to help him.
This is waaaaaay more serious then a $500.00 bank draft.
They are very creative in how they scam people.
If he allowed this hacker external access it is imperative that you get this done or he could be cleaned out financially.
I sure wish you luck. We used to have someone adept at computer information on AC; wish I could think of something for you, and hope others can.