Everyone Should Find Their Own, Personal Computer Geek So We're Not Swayed by False Offers

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Celticeagle just wrote something about a popup that kept showing up on her browser with a number to call. I had a similar scenario several years ago that I too, considered letting take over my computer. If I'd had a computer person that helped keep my computer clean at that time, I'd never have considered letting someone else that I didn't know or contact help me out. I'd already notices a problem with my computer running slower and when the person called they sounded like they knew about my computer issues. At first I thought they were from Microsoft, but later I knew they weren't but still allowed them access to my pc. They didn't talk about me having a virus, but rather showed me errors that resided on my pc. They offered several years of maintenance for a specific fee which I didn't have. They then proceeded to shorten the maintenance period along with the fee charged. When they got down to sixty dollars, I agreed although I only had three months of service. I proceeded to install a program onto my computer that allowed the 'tech' person direct access so he could take off the errors found. While he was working on my pc, I proceeded to read the info on the software and it said not to allow anyone to use it that I didn't contact myself. After a bit of time I began to wonder whether I made a huge mistake. After a bit of time, my daughter came home, heard what was taking place and talked me into deleting the connection. First I shut down my browser and they brought it back up. I did that several times and they continued to open it back up. Then I used the ctrl/alt delete method of shutting it down, and they restarted it immediately. Then I got even more scared. Somewhere in there they called me and asked what was happening, I told them I changed my mind, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Finally, I turned the power off to the whole computer system and kept it that way for half an hour. In the meantime, I also deleted or uninstalled the software that allowed them to access my pc. I contacted my bank to put a stop to any possible future direct withdrawals from that company, although I did pay the agreed upon amount. Since that year, they've contacted me several times by phone, and at first I told them I was no longer interested in their help. Any future calls I got I hung up the phone once I realized who was on the other end. Although that particular company didn't warn me of any particular virus, they did 'show' me thousands of errors on my pc, which they probably faked in the first place. To my knowledge they never got any of my information.