A MAN took remote control of a Donegal woman’s computer and demanded a credit card payment of €249 to release it, the victim has said.
The computer hijacker – thankfully – didn’t get away with the money or the scam.
But the victim is warning other people to be vigilant.
“Our landline rang at 8pm, my mother in law answered an Indian sounding man was on the other side telling her our internet had been hacked and to go to the computer immediately,” she said.
“At this stage she passed me the phone so assuming this person was calling from 3, I did as he instructed and within minutes he had control of the computer and told me I had to pay €249 to regain control of my computer and asked for my credit card details – which I did not give him.
“He started to get abusive and threatening so I hung up and tried to shut down my computer which I could not as he was changing all settings and I had no control at all.
“I switched off computer and when I went to turn it back on he had it password protected and I could not use it at all. I was very lucky as later when I turned it on again the computer itself recognised suspicious activity had taken place and offer me the chance to reset it to a previous setting.”
The victim said she wanted other people to be wary of the bogus callers.
“I would like to warn other people in Donegal about this as I found it very distressing and a huge invasion of privacy.” she said.
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