I hust hyperventilated

[melodypottersnape]

My mother and me saw a Victorian home up for sale and we were joking about buying it and turning it into a boarding house. Well when I got home I got curious and decided to check how much renting a room in a boarding house would cost. I clicked on a link to one and all of a sudden my computer locks on to a page that says that the FBI Cybercrimes has just flagged my IP for looking at ... well lust just say disgusting pics. At first I was real calm and I knew it had to be a hoax. Especially when it wanted me to pay a fine. I was like first the FBI wouldn't warn me that their going to arrest me and second I wouldn't pay a fine I'd go to jail for these 'charges'. So I was like I'll just get my Aunt or Office Max take off this virus.

Then there was this voice in the back of my head (Not in the mental illness way!) saying that people get hacked and their IP addresses copied all the time to do illegal acts. And what if this is real and in my arrogance I get in trouble for something I didn't do just because I couldn't be bothered to make one measly call. So I got on my cell and looked up who to call in the FBI since they were using their identity. (Totally seemed perfectly logical at the time but now just makes feel like and inept idiot).

I was perfectly calm until I heard the lady's voice and then I had a panic attack. The poor woman just waited so patiently as I had a sobbing freak out as I tried to tell her what the website thing said and what I had been looking at before it happened. She was real nice as she told me that it was just a hoax attempting to get money from me and that I should just get the virus off and everything will be okay. I still can't believe that it somehow made sense to me to bother a FBI office for something as stupid of this when I knew in my head that it was a hoax.

Then I called my mom and told her because she needed to know incase it affected her computer but I still hadn't calmed down and for some reason I couldn't get myself to. So my mom (saint that she is) came home from work briefly to calm me down.

So for the love of God please don't tell me that I'm the only one this has happened too or has done something this stupid in response.

[Kitty279]

Poor you, that had to be quite a shock. Got something similar once, but for supposedly downloading music illegally (yeah right, what would I do with that?) and there would be a fine and all that rubbish. Only it came as an email, and was so clearly a fake I laughed it off. Honestly, no proper police header, and since when do they send that via email when they can find out the real address? But if yours was made a bit better than that, I understand why you panicked. Besides, you are a good deal younger.

In any case, even if it was just a hoax, it's not too bad when the FBI knows that these messages are out, maybe they actually bother to try and find the culprits using their name? One can hope ...

[melodypottersnape]

I still don't know why I freaked out so badly when I was 90% positive it was a hoax because it asked for money. It's just when I had to read what the 'charges' I got nauseated and started having a panic attack. The whole time my rational side was screaming 'why are you acting like a blubbering mess when you know a fine wouldn't be demanded for those types of charges! They would just flat out arrest you.'I had good laugh at myself later after I got over the hyperventilating and embarrassment. lol.

[stelladelnordxd]

Oh boy, it's a hoax. I got that too and I'm a Canadian. We don't have an FBI -giggles-. But I know the feeling of panicking, don't worry. My friend and I went through the same thing.

[fantasy]

My mum had something similar at the beginning of the year. She turned her computer on and it suddenly took a photo of her. A document or something then came up, with said photo of her on it, saying she had done something illegal and she had to deposit a fine into an account. It then went on to say that if she didn't the police were going to come to our house and arrest her.

[Kitty279]

That type of message is certainly enough to make some people pay because they are shocked and frightened of the consequences if they do not. And that's all the makers of these hoaxes want - some people falling for it and making money from them.

But when I think about it rationally, would any law enforcement even be allowed to go about it this way, even if the fine was legal? From the attempt to contact our police via email after someone left scratches on my car, I know that they aren't allowed to answer any questions that way. It could be different in other countries, of course, but even then I find it hard to believe that they would be allowed to act by way of a non-personalised email or document like that.

On the other hand, years ago I got to my surprise a registered letter from some police station in Austria and did read in stunned disbelief that I was fined for driving too fast there half a year ago. Only problem: I've never been there with my car, and at the day I was supposedly caught speeding, I was sitting at my desk in my office and working like the good girl I am. Which, luckily, I could prove. It took some restraint to *not* add to my letter that they must have caught a ghost driving the ghost of my car. But then, from what I have read, it seems they are there not forced to take photos as proof of the cars caught, like they do here, but rely on a policeman reading and remembering the number long enough to write it down. If that's true, it explains a lot ... They have a bad name for sending that sort of letters to people who were never there because they remembered the number wrong and enforce payment if you can't prove beyond doubt you weren't there - which is hard when they take so long to send these letters. Who can remember where he was half a year earlier, after all?