IT'S A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something happened to me the other day, and I feel I need to share it. I had a phone call on my land line. We have caller ID, but this time nothing came up to give me a hint as to who it was. My sister and some of my other friends tell me not to answer these things, but having kids away at college, and in high school, etc. I felt I needed to answer this call. You never know when it might have been an emergency, and not everyone leaves a message. In fact, I have found A LOT do not leave messages.

Anyway, I answered the phone. I almost hung up, because at first no one seemed to be there. Just as I was about to hang up, a voice came through. This voice was that of a male, and was speaking broken English. I thought, "Well, crap, I should not have answered it." This is how the conversation went:

"Hello, this is Microsoft calling to let you know that your computer is sending information to our company telling us that you have bad software and your computer is infected, and, blah, blah, blah."

He told me all kinds of weird things. I continued to listen, as I knew this was a scam, but thought how many people would believe this character. I'm sure if I let him go on, he would have asked for some of my personal info.

I finally interrupted him and asked how he got my phone number.  He told me that when we registered this computer we had given our phone number. He continued on, but I interruped him, "Hmmmm, that can't be true. You see, our one and only computer is like, well five years old, and our phone number is less than two months old."

*CLICK!*

You got it, he hung up on me. Why am I blogging about this? Well, I had a few of my Facebook friends tell me that I need to report this to the police. Not sure they can do anything, but I felt maybe if I blog about this on my Tappingflamingo blog and my Vibrant Nation Blog, that the word will get out. I was also told that many of my Facebook friends had experienced the same type thing recently.

So, to all my readers, BEWARE!!!! Do NOT give our ANY info over the phone unless you are FOR SURE as to who you are talking to. And even then, be careful. My in laws  who are very careful, and who use the computer to do business very LITTLE, and who know not to share their info over the phone have gotten their identity stolen, not once, but TWICE! After seeing what they have gone through, I am doubly cautious about using the internet for business, and also about trashing my stuff. I shred everything! If you get your identity stolen, you are the one that has to prove you are YOU! And believe it or not, that is not the easiest thing to do. Seems like they treat you as the villain.

So, anyway, heads ups! The only reason these people continue to do these type things is because, apparently, we are not careful enough, and it is quite easy to get people's personal information. So let us all band together and make it hard for these people, then maybe it won't be so prevalent. 

Here is a good link and here is another link to go to for info on how to keep your identity safe. Personally, I have never felt comfortable giving my info online. I know most of you do this without thinking. Online banking is something I feel very uncomfortable about. Once these Bozo's get your bank info, then you are in really bad trouble! They can wipe out your bank account in nothing flat, and you probably won't know about it for several days.

The computer can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a nightmare in many ways, and identity theft is one of those nightmares.