Hat Scam

So I think I have figured out what happened when my computer screen was taken over. It is a very convoluted story, but it could serve as a warning to others. It all started when a friend sent me a link to a hat that looked a lot like Famous Hat for sale on an internet auction site. Now Famous Hat is pretty beat up at this point, so the idea of getting a replacement was tempting, and the price was right. In fact the shipping for something coming from China seemed really low, so that gave me pause, but I did order the hat. The seller sent me an email thanking me for my order and saying they would send me a gift to thank me. I didn’t think anything more about it until a small cat-shaped bookmark thing arrived, and the auction website said my order had been delivered. I contacted the website, which contacted the seller, who said oh their mistake, the hat was also on its way. They sent a link for me to track the hat, and like an idiot I clicked on it. It said I needed to download something, and finally I realized this could be a bad idea so I stopped the download, but then my default homepage had changed. All my bookmarks were gone! At first I was a little panicky, but it was easy to restore my default homepage, and then all my bookmarks (for websites I need to visit) returned. Eventually the hat arrived, and it doesn’t really resemble Famous Hat. Then Friday that screen took over my computer, saying that I had to call a toll-free number to fix the problem. I knew that was a scam, but I couldn’t close that window and had to end the program. All the malware is now cleaned off my computer, but it blows my mind that this person from China went through all this work to implant this thing on my computer in the hopes that I would call the toll-free number that said it was Microsoft Help and then pay whatever they said to fix the issue. Think of it: they had to post something to sell, then they had to send me a cheaper thing so I would contact them so they could send the link to track what I had actually ordered. These scammers are really playing the long game.

Famous Hat