Hacked

 On Facebook the other day

I accidentally pressed the

enter key on the wrong 

item and three screens, one 

on top the other, popped

up. Not one of them allowed

me to X out. 

There was something mentioned

in the text about being hacked, 

and there was a phone number

at Microsoft supposedly to call

for help.

Idiot me called because no

matter how I tried I couldn’t

eliminate those damned screens.

Well, I got a guy who said his

name was Mike Brown. Huh?

Suspicious. 

He spoke with a thick Indian or

Pakistani accent. But he guar-

anteed me that he was with 

Microsoft.

 

Suspicious.

The more I spoke with him

about my dilemma the more

he assured me that he was

from Microsoft and he was

there to help me at no charge. 

Suspicious.

The further along he guided me

with his prompting process, the

more frustrated and aggravated

I became.

Suspicious.

I questioned him every step of

the way. He forcefully insisted

we needed to do this in order

to clear up the problem.

Suspicious.

He asked me did I use my

computer to shop, bank and

the like? Hesitant, I said yes,

but gave him no specifics.

 

Suspicious.

As time and process went on,

I told him to delete all we had

done, and I would call my

computer security company.

Now, having control of my

computer, I saw he was speed-

illy doing some weird things.

Suspicious.

I told him over and over to

stop, but he kept insisting 

this needed to be done for

him to delete what had been

done. Bullcrap! Get your hands

of my computer, I insisted.

Finally, I deflected that which

he had been doing, and he 

kept yelling, “Stop! I’m getting

there! You mother f...ing ass-

hole!”

My suspicions were confirmed,

with that language and the

name Mike Brown spoken

with an East Indian accent,

he was indeed a hacker not

employed by Microsoft at all.

I hung up and wiped out the down-

loads he had instructed me impose.

I rebooted my computer, returning

it and myself to a relative state of 

normalcy.

Old age skepticism and suspicion

won out over stupidity this time.

His swearing in English at me

 

with an Indian accent was

laughable. Had he cursed me

in Hindi (even though I wouldn’t

have understood), it may have

been far more amusing.

                   -30-

Chris Hanch  6-1-2023