MikeMck Loc: Southern Maryland on the Bay

I received a call from someone representing him to be a Microsoft technician telling me that my computer was filled with bad stuff. In the past, of course, I just hung up, but the day before this I contacted a company called Restoro who charged me $135 to "clean" my computer. I assumed this was an extension of that. Anyway, I let him get access to my PC, and for the low price of $2.00, they would remove all the bad stuff. Well, dumb idiot I was, I tried to give them an American Express Card, they could not take that, so I gave them a Citi Bank Visa card that I only use at Costco. In about 5 minutes, I received a text from Citi Bank asking me if I authorized a cash advance of $1,997.99. I terminated the call with the scammer after indicating that he may be having an unnatural relationship with his mother and called the fraud department of Citi Bank. They actually put 2 charges through using an outfit called World Remit to send the funds to someone called Hazel and my last name in the Philippines. This happened on April 27, 2021. I disputed both charges and just last week they removed one of the charges, but one still remains. My question is, has anyone ever had occasion to not have a disputed charge removed from their credit card? I have an excellent credit score and although I really don't want to pay this, I'm afraid I will have no choice. Thanks for your help!

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

You may want to check with your credit card company to ascertain your liability.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

I do not think that disputing a charge affects your credit score. Not paying balances timely does. The cc company will investigate the charges and if the person selling goods and services cannot justify the charge, it will be permanently removed from your bill. I would not pay and I would not worry about it. I think I am correct.

Rashid Abdu Loc: Ohio

Next time you need help with your computer, get someone local, who will PHYSICALLY come to you and solove your problems. Geek Squad at Best Buy is an example. Dealing with internet "experts" is very risky.
Good luck.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

You have my sympathies. You also stir my greatest fear that it is only a matter of time before I fall foul of a scam. I try as hard as I can to treat all calls and emails from an unknown source as suspicious: Think Fraud First and all that! But ........

nikon_jon Loc: Northeast Arkansas

I got one of those calls a few years ago. The first thing I asked was, "If you are telling me there are bad things on my computer, you must already have access. How did you get that and why are you speaking in English that I can barely understand?" When he persisted, I told him I thought he was f.o.s. When he asked what that meant, I told him to figure it out. Maybe that is some of the 'bad stuff' I have on my computer. It is a BIG MISTAKE to be polite with these people.

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

I won't go into detail about what happened in my situation but several years ago I thought I had fallen for and been conned out of $80,000. Talk about a sickening sinking feeling for a whole weekend until Monday morning rolled around when I could verify the transaction was legit. A couple days ago I decided to buy a blood pressure monitor but when I went to the site of the #1 recommended one the site didn't look legit with incorrect punctuation and no option to use pay pal so I bypassed that one. I've had good luck with the geek squad at Best Buy for computer clean up.

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

Since you gave them access to your computer they may have put something on it that you won't be able to detect. You might want to run some reliable software to find and eliminate any malware - or, take it to a reliable computer tech. In the future, any such phone calls and/or emails are scam - no one can see into your computer unless they've hacked into it.

tommyII Loc: Northern Illinois

It's to the point that I don't trust anyone on the phone or Internet. I get several calls a month from people claiming to be from security department of Microsoft, or Verizon. I just hang up. Last year I received a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS. I was told by a relative, who work for the IRS, that they Never call people. They communicate in writing.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I Have an HP and subscribe (yes subscribe) to an HP service called "smart friend". They have gone on my computer and saved my bacon dozens of times. Helped me install new windows, through a hard driv,e and GPU crash. I don't know if other brands of computers have a similar service but it sure is worthwhile. 24/7 service and clear speaking technicians

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

You need to hire an attorney. You need to do it faster than yesterday. This is NOT the place to get the advice you need to save your ass. You are an opened the cash register and you need some serious legal advice.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

bs!

anotherview Loc: California

Kill the credit card you used to do the transactions. Your credit card company will replace the card at no charge to you. The current balance of the killed card may transfer to your replacement card. But your credit card company will not honor any new charges to the killed card account.

Yes, an attorney may help you dispute the fraud involved in the unauthorized charges to your credit card.

You have to worry about identify theft, as well. The cyber criminals may've sold your info to others who will rip you off. So go NOW to the local police to report the scam. The police report will document your identity at a given point in time. For legal purposes, anything wrongful after that point cannot stick to your name.

Others here may offer other suggestions for protecting yourself in this matter.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

you don't need an attorney, you need to advise your credit card company of the fraudulent charges and tell them it wasn't you and you are not paying them. If the rep on the phone doesn't help just ask for a supervisor and tell them the same thing. The transactions are card not present transactions and the merchant is fully responsible for them, the credit card company will charge them back to the merchant (if it is a fraud merchant the credit card company has to eat the charges).

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

All great advice. Keep it coming!