GMN
Well-known member
A friend sent me this, happened to her out of the blue, it is kind of bizarre!! It is as follows:
OK, this is not my idea of a laid-back Saturday. And what I'm telling you here I can guarantee is NOT a hoax but a very real threat and I learned the hard way.
About 2 pm I was studying, became very sleepy and decided since I am supposed to be laid back on Saturdays, I just had to have a nap. All doors were locked except the front door was open with the screen hooked but I felt safe in lying down on the sofa with the TV on. Just got comfortable when someone knocked on the door. They couldn't see me and I decided to ignore it.
You all know me and my penchant for NEVER answering the door to strangers.
Then I heard little kids talking and decided it must be someone I knew so I got up and there was a man (30ish) standing there with 2 little kids. He had a laptop in his hand.
He immediately introduced himself to me by name and told me that he was disabled, with a medical discharge from the army, that his wife was the manager at a local fast food restaurant, and he was trying to make some money on his own to help out.
He then held his laptop up to the screen door and asked me if I recognized the information on the screen. It was my excel worksheet with all my financial details, bank acct #s, credit card #s, etc. I was dumbfounded.
He said he was going into business to encrypt peoples' computer data for $30, and that he had parked outside my house and got on the Internet and downloaded my info onto his computer, just to show me how vulnerable my computer was! He told me what he was doing was legal, that he knew how to do it because he worked on computers in the military, told me he was a Mason and knew Sam Mustard, Richard Wrinkle and Larry Winfrey and that everything was on the up and up.
He said I see that you sell Avon! (got that from the computer, too).
About that time Annie stood up on her hind feet and looked out the door and meowed at the little kids and he said, "I noticed you have a show dog, too". That let me know he had looked at all my photos because we have a picture of Counsel at one of his award shows before MJ and Terry bought him.
He was not menacing or threatening in any way, and I'm a pretty good judge of people and I honestly did not feel threatened by him because I felt he was really wanting to help me.
Now I pride myself on being so savvy and being skeptical of everything but I was so shocked by this. But I didn't open the door and let him in but only because I was thinking "I need to talk to Kenny about this" because no one is allowed to ever touch my computer to work on it but Kenny.
I asked him for a business card so I could "think about it" but he didn't have one, but gave me his name and telephone number.
We talked a few more minutes then he left. It was only then I realized he had walked away with his computer with all my financial info on it! I called Kenny but couldn't talk to him because he was on his cell phone with no signal. Then I called Darla because she has been doing some work for me and she really knows how to operate a computer, do flash drives, manipulate the excel program etc. I asked her if she could come over and show me how to take my stuff off my hard drive and store it on my flash drive.
So she did, and in her usual bossy 1st Serg way (she didn't lose that when she left the military and I have to tease her about it), she told me to call the police immediately, that what he did was illegal, that he had hacked into my computer sitting outside my house and not just into my internet stuff, but into my hard drive, excel programs, documents, photo albums, and all that stuff that I always thought was so safe because it wasn't out there on the Internet. But he was able to get into my computer just like he was sitting at my desk! And I have firewalls all over both my computers.
Long story short - Kenny came over and worked on my computer and kept telling me the guy had to have hacker software to do that...........I talked with 2 police dispatchers, sheriff's office, left word on Larry Winfrey's answering machine, talked to Sam Mustard who didn't have a clue as to whether it was illegal or not, finally called police dept again and asked to have an officer stop by the house.
He did, and was very helpful but he doesn't know the Internet. He left and called the guy, who told him he latched on to my information by accident while he was driving by with his laptop and hooked onto the Internet from my wireless signal. Kenny and I both tried to explain to him it was impossible to get information off my hard drive because it was outside the Internet.
In the meantime Kenny had looked up the law on MO"s website and found out what he was doing was a class A misdemeanor just for accessing my info and a class D felony if he used it in any way.
The police officer called him back and the guy said he was using Department of Defense software because he had it in the military and was licensed to use it! (Which was what Kenny had said all along - that no one in everyday life has the capability of hacking into a private computer protected by firewalls.)
He told police he had erased my info from his computer and I will have to trust him on that and watch my accounts very closely because there is no way of knowing. Except my gut feeling has told me all along that he really thought he was being legal in this and meant no harm.
When the officer called his home and got his wife, she said he had told her all about it, and all about his plans to start up an encrypting business, she knew he had been to my house and I guess she suspected all along he would get in trouble. According to the office, she told him she was going to kick her husband's butt although that's not the word she used.
I told police I didn't want to press charges as long as he got rid of the info because I think they put the fear into him and if he is a Mason they will sit down on him really hard.
Then I guess we will just sit back and wait.
He told police he wanted to call and apologize to me in person. I will ask him again if he got rid of all my information and I will tell him I am certain he is no longer licensed to use DOD software, since he's out on a medical discharge and needs to turn it in. (Kenny says this software would probably be the highest level of technology there is, like what they track all the terrorists with, checking their computers, etc.)
This is just like prison officials letting prisoners go when they are supposed to be kept. Somebody just didn't do their job when they didn't check his computer or take that software away before he left the military.
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OK, this is not my idea of a laid-back Saturday. And what I'm telling you here I can guarantee is NOT a hoax but a very real threat and I learned the hard way.
About 2 pm I was studying, became very sleepy and decided since I am supposed to be laid back on Saturdays, I just had to have a nap. All doors were locked except the front door was open with the screen hooked but I felt safe in lying down on the sofa with the TV on. Just got comfortable when someone knocked on the door. They couldn't see me and I decided to ignore it.
You all know me and my penchant for NEVER answering the door to strangers.
Then I heard little kids talking and decided it must be someone I knew so I got up and there was a man (30ish) standing there with 2 little kids. He had a laptop in his hand.
He immediately introduced himself to me by name and told me that he was disabled, with a medical discharge from the army, that his wife was the manager at a local fast food restaurant, and he was trying to make some money on his own to help out.
He then held his laptop up to the screen door and asked me if I recognized the information on the screen. It was my excel worksheet with all my financial details, bank acct #s, credit card #s, etc. I was dumbfounded.
He said he was going into business to encrypt peoples' computer data for $30, and that he had parked outside my house and got on the Internet and downloaded my info onto his computer, just to show me how vulnerable my computer was! He told me what he was doing was legal, that he knew how to do it because he worked on computers in the military, told me he was a Mason and knew Sam Mustard, Richard Wrinkle and Larry Winfrey and that everything was on the up and up.
He said I see that you sell Avon! (got that from the computer, too).
About that time Annie stood up on her hind feet and looked out the door and meowed at the little kids and he said, "I noticed you have a show dog, too". That let me know he had looked at all my photos because we have a picture of Counsel at one of his award shows before MJ and Terry bought him.
He was not menacing or threatening in any way, and I'm a pretty good judge of people and I honestly did not feel threatened by him because I felt he was really wanting to help me.
Now I pride myself on being so savvy and being skeptical of everything but I was so shocked by this. But I didn't open the door and let him in but only because I was thinking "I need to talk to Kenny about this" because no one is allowed to ever touch my computer to work on it but Kenny.
I asked him for a business card so I could "think about it" but he didn't have one, but gave me his name and telephone number.
We talked a few more minutes then he left. It was only then I realized he had walked away with his computer with all my financial info on it! I called Kenny but couldn't talk to him because he was on his cell phone with no signal. Then I called Darla because she has been doing some work for me and she really knows how to operate a computer, do flash drives, manipulate the excel program etc. I asked her if she could come over and show me how to take my stuff off my hard drive and store it on my flash drive.
So she did, and in her usual bossy 1st Serg way (she didn't lose that when she left the military and I have to tease her about it), she told me to call the police immediately, that what he did was illegal, that he had hacked into my computer sitting outside my house and not just into my internet stuff, but into my hard drive, excel programs, documents, photo albums, and all that stuff that I always thought was so safe because it wasn't out there on the Internet. But he was able to get into my computer just like he was sitting at my desk! And I have firewalls all over both my computers.
Long story short - Kenny came over and worked on my computer and kept telling me the guy had to have hacker software to do that...........I talked with 2 police dispatchers, sheriff's office, left word on Larry Winfrey's answering machine, talked to Sam Mustard who didn't have a clue as to whether it was illegal or not, finally called police dept again and asked to have an officer stop by the house.
He did, and was very helpful but he doesn't know the Internet. He left and called the guy, who told him he latched on to my information by accident while he was driving by with his laptop and hooked onto the Internet from my wireless signal. Kenny and I both tried to explain to him it was impossible to get information off my hard drive because it was outside the Internet.
In the meantime Kenny had looked up the law on MO"s website and found out what he was doing was a class A misdemeanor just for accessing my info and a class D felony if he used it in any way.
The police officer called him back and the guy said he was using Department of Defense software because he had it in the military and was licensed to use it! (Which was what Kenny had said all along - that no one in everyday life has the capability of hacking into a private computer protected by firewalls.)
He told police he had erased my info from his computer and I will have to trust him on that and watch my accounts very closely because there is no way of knowing. Except my gut feeling has told me all along that he really thought he was being legal in this and meant no harm.
When the officer called his home and got his wife, she said he had told her all about it, and all about his plans to start up an encrypting business, she knew he had been to my house and I guess she suspected all along he would get in trouble. According to the office, she told him she was going to kick her husband's butt although that's not the word she used.
I told police I didn't want to press charges as long as he got rid of the info because I think they put the fear into him and if he is a Mason they will sit down on him really hard.
Then I guess we will just sit back and wait.
He told police he wanted to call and apologize to me in person. I will ask him again if he got rid of all my information and I will tell him I am certain he is no longer licensed to use DOD software, since he's out on a medical discharge and needs to turn it in. (Kenny says this software would probably be the highest level of technology there is, like what they track all the terrorists with, checking their computers, etc.)
This is just like prison officials letting prisoners go when they are supposed to be kept. Somebody just didn't do their job when they didn't check his computer or take that software away before he left the military.
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