Tags

, , , , , , ,

Frost by Bertha Boynton Lum (1869-1954), c. 1920.  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, LOC #LC-DIG-ppmsca-10484.

Photo credit:  http://store.tidbitstrinkets.com/blog/

As I was writing my blog, I looked at my last Credit Card statement and noticed that I had been billed for money obtained fraudulently.  I phoned the Credit Card company and was told I had been reimbursed that money after they sent their invoice.  However, they told me that they had made a payment to my PayPal account.  I do not have a PayPal account so this account was opened by someone else.  The Credit Card company asked me to destroy my brand new Credit Card and said they would retrieve that money.

In the meantime, I had contacted PayPal to open a PayPal account. They confirmed I had an account, the account I never opened.  Yes there had been activity, but they would fix this.  But they did not tell me they had billed my now disabled Credit Card, I cannot open an account with them until my computer has been scanned.

In other words I do not have

  • a Credit Card, temporarily, nor do I have,
  • a PayPal account.

Here are the tricks used to try to defraud me:

1) They disabled my computer,

  • made me believe they were Microsoft employees;
  • showed thousands of viruses;
  • and told me they could fix the problem for x amount of money.
  • They installed AVG at ten times the cost of AVG. 

Then someone else phoned and told me my computer was full of viruses and that the people who had phoned me had defrauded me.  They too posed as Microsoft employees, with photo ID.

I could smell a rat and phoned the Credit Card company immediately.  My card was cancelled and I received a new one about two weeks later.

2) A sense of guilt and harassment: they will not stop phoning.

I then received another phone call from the people who defrauded me the first time and was told I had to pay for the AVG protection they had installed.  I told them to take it away, but they said they could not do this.  So I hung up, but they kept phoning and phoning.  It turned into harassment.

In the end, they told me I would be charged a lower amount of money and they asked me if I had a PayPal account.  I told them I didn’t.  I therefore suspect, they created the PayPal account at that very moment.

The Credit Card people have experts who can deal with this, so I will get my money back.  However, I had to destroy my new Credit Card.

THE ADVICE

This is the advice I was given.

  • If someone tells me my computer is disabled, contact someone I trust to have it fixed, if indeed it needs to be fixed.
  • Do not use a Credit Card to pay for anything purchased on the Internet.
  • Phone the police if someone is manipulating me and harassing me.

THE SEQUEL

AVG is now messing up with my computer.  I’m getting alert pop-ups that I can’t close.  So

  • how do I get rid of AVG and
  • how do I pay WordPress?  My beloved WordPress would not accept my Credit Card when I had a valid one and now it could be two weeks before I receive a new Credit Card.
  • Doesn’t WordPress have a contact person or a phone number. 
  • I also learned that PayPal was not as safe as a Credit Card.  Credit Card companies hire experts and you have to authorize a payment.  In a sense, they fell into a trap.

CONCLUSION

I do not know how to get in touch with WordPress and may not be able to blog for about two weeks.  And I do not want a PayPal account.  Not only did I not have an account, but I did not authorize the payment(s) they made.

We will therefore listen and look at Japonaiserie.  

Micheline Walker©
October 19th, 2012
WordPress