A page from my personal Diary

March 25, 2024

About 5 weeks ago, I fell for a scam with crooks trying to take over my computer. I received an email from PayPal about some unauthorized transaction.


I was already busy with 10 tabs open working on various projects. I had just had a go around with my Bank of America. I wanted to set up a savings account. Thinking I could do it online, no go. You had to fill out an application to let you even have a savings. I received a message saying I would need to go into a branch with identification to prove who I am before they would consider setting up a savings account.


I emailed the president of Bank of America. I received a phone message from the executive office of the president complaint department the next day. I have been playing phone tag with the woman handling my complaint. I want to know how a disabled person who does not leave their home gets to a branch, and why is that required in the first place. But I digress.


I called my grandson to help when I realized the mistake I made, and he locked down everything and blocked where the breach was made. He said the scammers most often working out of a town near New Delhi, India were very active at the time. He works in cyber security. If something happened to my computer it could infect the other on the same server in the family.


He was able to shut them off, repairing the breach. He cleaned the entire computer files after off loading all my stuff.


A week ago, an attempt to take over was made again. This time my grandson took permanent action to shut everything down and told me not to use it at all. The hard drive is corrupted. It will cost about $70 to get a new one for that laptop. I am using my former laptop, that I love by the way. It is a Lenovo ThinkPad. It is the one where my young grandson accidentally spilled water killing a couple of important keys. At least I did not consider them critical until I did not have them. One is the ability to hit control plus A to highlight an entire document. I wrote out the word plus because the plus key was one that got ruined and I am too lazy to click on the virtual keyboard.


My grandson bought me a new keyboard for my birthday, which falls on New Year's Eve, to use but it is not attached to the monitor and is awkward. I simply use the online virtual keyboard until I can come up with a better answer. It reminds me of old manual typewriters where a letter would wear out and not work. Also, I remember how awful it is to have a piano key that no longer meets the sounding board causing the key not to play.


I did not get much done today because even though I got up at 7am, sometime when I was working on my writing.com site, I fell fast asleep and woke up at 11:30 am. That happens when I often stay up until 2, 3,or 4 am. I remember I was sending my exclusive merit badge but the badge was not located. I will get an answer later today so that can get sorted out.


It is 2:54 am. I am going to play a couple of rounds of Mahjongg then complete one online jigsaw puzzle before I go to be. It is a nightly (or morning, however you look at it) ritual that helps relax me to quickly go to dreamland.


I put on some piano music, in the background, which is called At The Bench With Briley. He plays a lot of gospel music, all by ear. I enjoy it very much.