In spite of the fact that I learned how I got the virus, I was still susceptible to falling for Internet hacker schemes.
One time, I clicked on a link, because it looked so strange and supposedly a couple of my conservative friends on Facebook had comments with it, saying how cool this post was. Someone contacted me saying "I don't think you would be posting this kind of stuff'. It was the suspicious video that I clicked on and as a result, it reposted it from my account, probably with some positive made up comments along with it.
Just before Christmas, I was on the Internet, and got a message saying that my computer now had a virus, and it gave a number to call. I thought that was strange, since I have a Mac, and I shouldn't be getting computer viruses. When I tried to close the page, a voice shouted from the computer saying not to close the page because I had a virus on my computer. Like someone who has already fallen for some tricks, I fell for this one and called the number.*
A couple of hours later, I was charged around $500 for the service of 'fixing' my Mac. I mentioned it to some friends on Facebook and they said it was a scam. I called Apple (which is what I should have done in the first place) and the lady told me I had been scammed. I went to dispute it on my credit card and they recommended that I first try to work it out with the company. So, I called the company and they gave me back $350 of it. I still had to pay for their services, which came to $150.
I still get phone calls from this company wanting to fix my computer. They call and tell me that they have seen some activity and my computer now has spyware on it that has to be removed. I also told the person who supposedly fixed my computer that my computer did not have a virus in the first place. He then agreed with me and said it was malware, not a virus.
Today, I got a friend request from someone who already was my friend on Facebook. I thought maybe the person was closing his old account and starting a new one, or maybe he just couldn't find his account (I have seen this happen with people. They sign up for Facebook, but can't figure out how to find themselves on Facebook, so they start a new account). I 'friended' this Facebook friend, and right away, I received a message from him. He was asking me how my family was doing. This seemed odd because I do not know him personally, although I have sat in a class he taught one time. I asked him how he was doing and if he had moved from the place he used to live. He did not respond, but he did ask me if I knew anything about CFDA Community Financial Domestic Assistance, which I had not ever heard of. He tried to explain it to me. During that time, I did a search on the internet on it and found that people are using Facebook to promote this scam*. Someone took the picture from the genuine person he represented, and used the new account to promote a scam. Somehow, I didn't fall for this and asked others who were his Facebook friend and they received the same message from him. The original person is reporting it to Facebook.
How easy it is to fall for things. Part of this comes from not wanting to offend people. What if the guy above really was the original Facebook friend and not the imposter? Wouldn't that be rude to not listen to him?
We need to be really careful about our contacts with other people. Recently, I heard a horrible story about a woman and her son who were in a store. The six year old was bored and wanted to leave. A man came up to them and befriended them. After a couple of minutes of tactfully trying to appear as a nice person who wanted to help, the woman allowed him to take the child to the video store that he promised he would do to help relieve the mom of the tension of having a whining child while shopping. The mom never saw her son again. She wanted to be kind and did not want to judge the man as a potential criminal. But look at the price she is paying for that mistake. How sad. But I think I am like that too. I don't want to pre-judge people as scammers, but they very well might be. We all need to be careful, especially when someone seems a little too friendly and familiar with us.
I think the devil is like that too. He always comes to us with plausible arguments over what we should or shouldn't be doing. He steals our time with things that seem important, but are not as important as our relationship with God should be. I wonder how many times I fall prey to the devil's schemes? I am sure that many times, I don't even know I have been tricked.
"For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."
1 Corinthians 2:9-11
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