A Melbourne, Fla., woman thought she was buying security protection from Microsoft. Instead someone hijacked her computer and hacked their way into her credit cards and passwords. She lost $500 and was almost conned out of thousands.
After Marilyn White bought a computer the Windows Service Center called. She thought it was Microsoft security.
"They were offering a lifetime warranty or guarantee for $300," White said.
She paid it plus a $250 renewal for protection from online threats.
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Later the company said she overpaid, and it needed her bank account number to send a refund. She didn't question it.
"No, because I trusted them and I worked with them for over a year," she said.
Then White spotted a $4,000 deposit in her checking account. Suspicious, she called her bank Wells Fargo and found out that money was a line of credit drawn on her own credit card.
It turns out the company is really DGPL Technologies out of India and someone had hacked into her computer for card numbers and passwords.
"They took $4,000 off my credit card and put it into my checking account and that blew my mind," said White.
The scammers attempted to transfer that money with White's bank account information they already had.
WFTV's Todd Ulrich called an 800 number for DGPL Tech.
"You're selling security but customers say you hacked into their computers," said Ulrich.
"It's a misunderstanding and we have all the recordings from the customer," replied a manager with DGPL.
Security experts say this kind of information hacking is a bigger threat than virus breakdowns.
"They could have anything she has. They could have access and just sit and watch her use the computer all day long," said Brian Killian with Northpoint Technology.
Wells Fargo was able to block the $4,000 transfer out of White's account.
"That's scary, that's scary that they could do that," said White.
The company never sent Ulrich any recordings to back up its claims. And it blamed what happened on scammers using its company name.
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