Ask HN: Grandma's computer compromised by scammer, how to assess risk?

28 points

10 years ago

EDIT: I apologize for removing initial desc., I uploaded a document I sent to her son which explains, what i could grok about what happened. I edited the markdown file quickly and uploaded it to gdocs. I put bullets of major stuff. the public link for more info with some pics is here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3-pXTFbLBkHUldDQ1JVSnNvd00/view?usp=sharing

I apologize for adding link but this is a quicker explanation with a few images rather than max the char limit. Notable things:

* probably pop-up initiated 200+ redirects broke back button.

* she called scammers(decent/good job copying look of chrome maliscious warning except with phone number and login)

* there are 3 hours before i arived where she was speaking with them intermittenly and she downloaded logmein.com, citrix software and gave them full access to computer.

* phone num lead me to website which is now 100% gone and "alex smith" had a seriously thick foreign accent as she described it.

EDIT [2.1]

There was a dir called [sons name] on the desktop (she thinks it might have been there always but not sure) with:

* 5 year old full Experian credit report

* some old job applications(a super quick look didn't show his full SS but I only looked very quickly, did see last 4)

* info about a p&s of some land he sold.

and he got the job 4 years ago now. Is branch manager of a financial companies office. He is concerned his information could have been downloaded and he is at risk. Trying to assess what I should tell him. Downplayed risk a bit short term so he doesn't flip on his mom, but understandably he is concerned about professional & personal ramifications.

edit 3:

I called te non-emg police line(haha first time ever) and asked if it was worth reporting in case needed to build narrative for ID theft in future. They said to do ic3.gov. I am more concerned with getting the paperwork incase i neeed to build narrative, than actually expecting them to find the people.