I've been debating this blog post for most of the week, but I believe it needs doing as a warning to folks who may need it.

Before I go on, I must preface with a few details about my father - he's a brilliant man, a scientist, full of great heart and wisdom. He is now in his 80s and he still does meaningful work for a university. But my mom was lost to us a year and a half ago (has it already been that long??), and he is beginning to really feel his age - and at times says he feels lost in a world that has changed so much from what he's known.

And at the beginning of the week he almost lost a huge chunk of savings to online scammers.

It all started with a popup, we all know the ones, that say your computer has been compromised - and to call Apple Support to get it taken care of. With a handy number to call.

From there the nightmare for my dad began.

They're experts at manipulation, these scoundrels. They kept ratcheting up the panic levels, making sure fear and adrenaline levels remained high while bombarding him with details on things he doesn't know about. Scaring him that not only was his computer hacked, but his phone lines as well. And then his bank. Pretending to install software that would allow secure communications with only their provided number, and that the hackers would be listening in otherwise.

Because isolation to prevent contact with anyone else is a key part of their plan.

From there they faked a call to his bank. Where he was told his accounts already showed horrible illegal activity involving purchase of child porn and other things. And those charges thankfully had been declined because they're illegal, plus the Treasury Dept had agents investigating a possible insider threat from the bank. As he wasn't alone, you see, he was the 18th victim. And one 'agent' became his 'Case Worker' for his case, needing his help for their active investigation and that it'd be illegal to tell anyone as that could compromise said investigation.

And that the bad hackers, oh they'd compromised his Social Security Number. Which the gov't would need to suspend. Which in turn would lock all his accounts, and prevent him any access to his money. For ten to eighteen years...years he doesn't believe he even has left.

But to save as much money as possible, they would set up a Treasury Department account to secure as much funds as they could before that happened. If only he would withdraw from the bank and let their 'agent' pick it up. And when the bank told him it didn't have enough cash on hand for him to cash out the amount in his savings - which was large as it held the life insurance money from my mom - the scammers switched the scheme to buying gold, that the gold would be an even better item for the Treasury Dept. to secure.

During all this he was receiving perfectly formatted emails from these institutions, his bank and the gov't. With all the warnings of the evils of what his SSN was being used for. AI-generated walls of texts, with names and badge #s of the agents involved - likely actual agents who had been scraped from official sites and used here by the scammers. They looked solid, but of course are something that would -never- be emailed. Such correspondence be it from local Courthouses/Sheriffs to Treasury/IRS will arrive via physical mail. Something the real government websites state categorically in warnings due to scams like this.

And this could have worked for them but for a couple things. The key one being that, while on the phone with the scammers, his cel phone randomly managed to call mine. And when I answered he yelled at me to get off the line. But that caused him to later call and try to explain why he'd yelled, that he'd been hacked and his bank compromised. Though he didn't give any more detail than that.

Which led to my seeing him over the weekend for dinner, and hearing only a bare minimum of more detail. Just that his bank and investigators were working on it. And on the drive home, the more I thought about it, the more those details didn't add up. Enough that my wife (who'd had a lot of wine with my dad) even needed to prompt me to not miss the highway interchange we needed to get home.

So instead of going to work Monday morning, I went back to his place, walking into his kitchen at six am. Told him I was concerned, and that I hadn't asked the right questions.

Because I hadn't.

Seeing me, he was both more worried and relieved...and finally opened up when asked to start from the beginning and describe how he had discovered he'd been hacked. And when he got to the whole 'buy gold' scheme my jaw dropped to the floor. A wire transfer had already been arranged to a legitimate gold seller, to ship to his house. Calling them, that was stopped (they immediately understood...and in fact their invoice had a huge warning in yellow at the top about scammers using gold to steal money and disappear without a trace). He'd arranged the transfer last Friday...but the bankers thought it also out of place, and had sat on it while the manager debated the approval. They could have approved it immediately, but hadn't. Because despite the reason he gave and had stuck to (that it was an investment in gold for his granddaughter, the lie he'd been told to tell), the situation stank to high heaven.

When we went in together later that morning to talk to them, they were immensely relieved - and confirmed that the gold seller had already notified them that they were not accepting the order (due to my call).

His accounts were fine. All of them. No bad activity, nothing lost. Credit card #s were changed anyway, and we put a freeze on his credit for good measure just to be sure. He doesn't think he gave them any PI as when faking being his other bank on the phone they hadn't bothered to even ask for any...as focusing on security questions might have gotten him thinking about security and catch on. These jerks wanted complete lack of traceability. A courier to pick up the cash or gold, and then gone.

We took his phone to the apple store and had them scan it, and it was clean as well. As for his computer, university IT owns it and took it away - giving him a shiny new one.

But this was too close, folks. Too damned close.

Through it all he had mental alarm bells going off, but they kept the pressure on - to discombobulate and confuse so he couldn't reflect properly. And technology, what it can or cannot do, is not something he understands well. Too much of these newfangled things work like magic to him. That's how these social-engineering bastards work, it's a studied and crafted approach - escalating through their ranks to their experts once a fish is on the line to reel them in for as much as they can get.

If you have elderly family, warn them. Or if heading into your own twilight years, be mindful - and if you have ANY doubts about anything - ask someone. Ask us here, even. The key to all these scams is isolation, the warnings to not tell anyone for whatever BS reason they come up with. They'll keep you on the phone if possible non-stop. And the amount of such fraud has quadrupled in the past few years, in the U.S. going from $2.7 Billion in 2018 to $10.3 Billion in 2022 as per the internet crime gov site. And probably much more by now in 2024.

And all of this started from that simple stupid javascript popup, and the spoofing of a call to appear to come from Apple.

I love my dad, and he will forever be my hero. And those who scared him so and tried to take advantage of him like this should rot in Hell. And to whichever angels caused his phone to spontaneously call mine and open the door, they have my immense gratitude.

- Erisian <3