I thought I was smart enough to recognize a scam.

            Many times I’d hung up on potential scammers. My favorite: a man pretending to be my grandson asking for money. First of all, my grandson doesn’t speak with an accent and definitely doesn’t sound like an old man. That was an easy one.

            I’d fended of many calls pretending to be from Microsoft or the bank or a credit card company.

            For months warnings have appeared whenever I was online, threatening that one account or another would crash it I didn’t do something immediately. I ignored those as well.

            But when my computer crashed, giving me a robin-egg blue screen, I didn’t know what to do. Two of my neighbors are IT specialists. Neither were home. I tried shutting down my computer, but upon restart, the blue screen was still there.

            I called my son-in-law, who knows more about computers than I will ever know. Because I couldn’t share the screen with him, I had to take photos with my phone and text them to him.

            He suggested not just shutting down my computer, but unplugging it. I did so. Waited an appropriate amount of time. Restarted. The blue screen was gone. For one day.

            When it appeared the second time, I received a phone call from Microsoft Security. I was skeptical, but it seemed legitimate. They knew stuff about me. My SSN, DOB, and even credit card. I did what they said. They transferred me to the FTC, where I spoke with someone claiming to be an Officer. He gave me a case number.

Meanwhile my husband visited the bank. I am so glad he did that! We had no idea how deep these scammers were into my computer and our finances.

            The blue screen went away. For another day.

            Another phone call. The voice sounded familiar. By now I am scared. They know everything about me. SSN, DOB, home address. Even my oldest son’s name.

            When they asked for a cashier check to safeguard my accounts, I knew this was a scam.

            Fortunately I had already begun changing passwords. I’d filed complaints with two federal agencies. After the second call, and then a third, I filed complaints everywhere I could.

            I still don’t know ow safe we are.

            My computer has been cleaned up. Five viruses had been found. Several connected to the dark web. They were deeply embedded in my computer and hadn’t been stopped by either of the antivirus programs installed.

            I’m sharing this as a cautionary tale.

            If you get that blue screen, take your computer in for a cleansing!

            Don’t try to fix it on your own.

            Don’t talk to anyone who claims they are from a know company.

            Please be smarter than I was.