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Computer Scam.
Hi fellow Members. Recently I had a problem that I didn’t need. I love photography and am usually looking at photo’s on Face Book. Recently whilst looking at a photograph on line with the comment "the photographer didn’t know what he was looking at until he checked the photo later", the photo looked like a whales tail sticking up out of the water with something on it, I clicked on the photo to enlarge it to see what was on the Whales tail, suddenly my Screen froze, went blue and a notification came up on my screen saying “Call Apple Assist immediately on this number”, number given, I phoned the number and a man answered saying “Apple Assist, how may I help”, I explained what had happened and the gentleman on the phone, after allowing him remote access to the computer said, ”I’m sorry but you have been on a Child Pornography site, that’s why you have been shutdown”, I told the man that I have never been on a Child Pornography site and told him how I feel about Child Pornography and the abusers, so he asked if I had been using a Pornography site”, the answer again was no. Ok said the man we’ll have a look at your computer and fix the problem. I watched as he went through my system, he showed me three addresses that had been illegally added to my computer which he deleted saying that all should be good now,” then added "I advise you to get our Apple Security added to your computer to stop this happening again”, the prices are”, 12 months US $175.00. 3 years US $350.00. US$ 550.00 or a lifetime cover of US $700.00. When I saw the prices on the screen the penny dropped!! I said that I would get a second opinion from a member of a Macintosh Apple Computer Club that I’m a member of, the Gentleman was not happy saying “You do what you like and hung up”, the Computer then went back to being frozen with the 'Call Apple Assist immediately' still on my screen. The end result was that my ‘friend' from the club 5 hours later, cleaned the computer for me finding MALWARE hiding within the computer and removed it and making the computer safe again, at the cost of $75.00. I notified my Bank, p&n Bank, who advised me to get a new Credit Card and froze my account until I sent them a detailed receipt from the person that cleaned my computer and p&n Bank Security were satisfied all was good. This Scam cost me $75.00, the inconvenience of changing my card details with the businesses that deduct monthly payments, waiting for the new card and having my bank account frozen for a while.
I have been pretty good at recognising a SCAM until this one. So beware on what you click on, on line, this was just a photo that I tried to enlarge.
Take care.
