😱 Oh no! It sounds like your parents fell victim to a hacking incident. This can be a really stressful situation, but let’s break it down and come up with a plan to secure their accounts.
First, let’s start by changing the online banking password. This will help prevent any further unauthorized access. 🔒 It’s an essential step to take immediately.
Next, since their personal information might have been compromised, it would be wise to set up new accounts altogether. This will give your parents a fresh start and minimize the risk of future attacks. 🔄
Keeping a close eye on their credit reports is crucial to detecting any fraudulent activity. Monitoring their credit reports regularly will help ensure that no one is using their identities for malicious purposes. 🕵️♂️📋
To add an extra layer of security, it’s a good idea to ask the bank if they can put a freeze on your parents’ accounts. This will prevent any unauthorized transactions from occurring. 🛡️ A time-sensitive measure to consider.
Additionally, freezing your parents’ credit can be beneficial. This step will prevent anyone from opening new accounts or taking out loans in their name, providing a higher level of protection. ❄️
Lastly, you might want to explore services like Lifelock. This identity theft protection service can offer your parents additional support and monitoring. It helps safeguard their personal information and alerts them to any suspicious activity. 🛡️💼
Remember to support your parents through this process, as it can be overwhelming for them. Stay proactive and vigilant in safeguarding their information. Together, you can work towards restoring their security. 🤝💪
> Should I have the bank put a freeze on their accounts if they haven’t already?
Yes
> Should we freeze their credit too?
Yes.
You should also consider doing a complete reformat on that computer (and probably any computer in the house that they use). Nuke the hard drive from orbit and start over.
There are so many red flags in this that scream SCAM, it’s mind-boggling that people still fall for these, but here we are. They weren’t hacked, they were scammed. The scammers couldn’t do anything on their own, which is why they asked your parents to do the transfer themselves.
I would try to find out exactly what information your parents gave out.
They can’t do anything with just a bank account number, this number is on every check you write. You can’t withdraw money with just an account number.
If they didn’t give out their social security number, there’s no reason to panic about freezing credit report either, but there’s also no reason NOT to do that.
This has been going around. It’s not a real hack. They try to trick you into getting hacked by acting out of fear.
Pointless to change passwords if you haven’t scrubbed that computer to remove the obvious and sometimes hidden in appdata or temp directories remote tools that are 100% set up for unattended remote access.
They weren’t “hacked” they were scammed. I clean up a minimum of about 6 of these per week because apparently older people will believe damn near anything as long as it contains sirens and the words Microsoft, Norton or McAfee.
After the machine is clean, then you change passwords, set up 2fa, set up ublock, put a freeze on, and if they were storing tax docs with unredacted SSNs, assume those were stolen as well.
Also assume everyone in any contacts lists they had have also had that information stolen as well.
Please talk to your parents about computer security. I know a lot of older folks will think it’s patronizing but let’s face it, there is a target audience for these sorts of “hacks” that are just social engineering. Just explain that Microsoft will never reach out and a bank will never reach out other than “please contact your local branch.”
Could you get financial power of attorney for your parents? This has nothing to do with technology. They simply were scammed. The same thing would have happened if they got a message on facebook or a phone call. They are, right now, at extreme risk of being scammed again. You need to take action now by taking over control of their finances.
Personally, I would factory reset that laptop and start from scorched earth (start over). If you can get to the login page, click the power button and hold shift while you click restart. Keep holding shift until it pops up in a blue screen. Click troubleshoot, reset PC, fully clean drive. Wait for that to go through and start over setting up their accounts in it. They don’t necessarily need a new account, old one is fine so long as the password for that account was not given to the scammers. (I would still have them change it). If this isn’t working to reset the laptop, do a Google search on how to boot a PC from a USB drive (it’s not as scary as it sounds). You will need to download windows 10 or 11 onto a USB drive -just Google “windows 10 iso” and save it to the USB. Plug that into the scammed laptop and boot to bios. You can find out which button to push for it to boot to bios by googling the model of computer and “boot to bios”. Once you get past all of that, download some security extensions in their web browser (ublock origin and privacy badger) – it will save them from themselves. There is a free malware detection scanner called Malwarebytes – download it for them and run a scan. It comes with a browser extension – get it. I’m here to help if you have more questions.
My mother-in-law almost fell for something like this but then she remembered “ask son-in-law first” and we caught it.
BUT that stupid pop-up kept coming up on the computer so I nuked it. Was going to anyway. It really only takes about 2 hours and I restored all her documents from the One Drive I had set them up on (and I scanned all documents of course).
They don’t do online banking or anything so no passwords to worry about thankfully.
In this case I would *always* recommend to format the hard drive and reinstall whatever OS it is (had someone on a Mac have this same issue). You just don’t know what other things these people got them to install or what other stuff your parents may have installed in the past. Just nuke it. It’s easy.
They weren’t hacked, they were conned.
Watch some Jim Browning videos on Youtube. Then show them to your parent.
This is a scam, not a hack.
I feel bad for your parents. It’s only a matter of time before they fall for another scam.
I deal with cleaning up clients’ computers after they fall victim to scams like this.
From what you’ve described, it sounds like a typical tech support scam. The computer probably didn’t freeze; the browser was redirected to a page that was programmed to expand to full screen mode, and that made it seem like the browser borders and menus and task bar vanished.
If that’s the case, and he didn’t install any software at their request (common titles are remote access software like AnyDesk, TeamViewer, UltraViewer, LogMeIn, or GoToAssist), it’s probably fine. These scams mostly rely on user action rather than downloading anything to the user’s computer automatically.
If he *did* install something, that needs to be cleaned up before doing anything else. Uninstall the software, run a virus scan, and clear the temporary files on the computer and in the browser at a minimum. Most of the time a full Windows reset isn’t necessary. Their bank may require them to bring the computer to a professional to have the clean up done, then provide paperwork showing the computer isn’t compromised anymore.
Something that we’ve found cuts down on repeat issues is providing education to our clients at pickup. We teach them how to exit full screen mode on their computers, and we go a bit overboard stressing that tech companies don’t just hand out their phone numbers to everyone. I’ve gotten into the habit of advising them to call a “trusted relative or close friend who knows a lot about computers” and that seems to help, too.
As other have suggested, and it might be overkill, but I’d wipe that PC and reinstall the OS. Additionally, install an ad blocker in their browser. This will help prevent them seeing these “ads” in the future.
The bank employees deserve a really nice bottle of wine.
An old friend fell for that “Microsoft” scam. Fortunately he told us before he made a transfer but he still paid almost 400$ to “upgrade his security”.
You mean the machine between the chair and keyboard was hacked into believing they needed to transfer their life savings.