I offer this article as a cautionary note to readers. I got scammed and I will take some of the credit for letting my guard down. That said, the story has a somewhat happy ending,
BEWARE OF SPECTACULAR COMPUTER REPAIR
BEWARE. Spectacular Computer Repair which goes under other names (i.e., B2B IT, Leiser Enterprises, Spectacular Stuff, LLC) is DEFINITELY INCOMPETENT and may be dishonest. I found “Spectacular” through Thumbtack. Wayne, whose card says CTO, offered to evaluate my laptop for $75 at my home. Upon arrival, he required my signature on a contract before he would look at my laptop, which he VERY quickly verbally reviewed. This was unusual. Most vendors do not do this. There is a reasonable expectation between the parties that the vendor will provide service for which the buyer will pay and the vendor will stand behind their work. I should have been suspicious.
Wayne then proceeded to identify problems using the internal Event Log (this is similar to what the Microsoft Windows scammers do). HE DID NOT CHECK THE RAM OR HARD DRIVE even though he could have used something like Ultimate Boot CD (which is free) to run a quick check of the RAM on site. Again, I should have been suspicious. He proposed a charge of $295 for the repair, which included replacing Kaspersky anti-virus software with Malwarebytes (an anti-malware application). He then took the laptop to his shop.
24 hours later he returned the laptop declaring that he had worked on it late into the night. Then he had me purchase Malwarebytes ($39.95) on line. I then proceeded to open a Word document and immediately the laptop crashed due to a memory error. THIS DEFINITELY CONFIRMS THAT WAYNE DID NOT CHECK RAM OR THE HARD-DRIVE AT HIS SHOP. He said I had to get new memory from Lenovo. I asked that he assist me with the call for which he charged me $40. Total paid to Wayne was $335.
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| Wayne’s Evaluation Report |
Lenovo sent the memory which I then had installed by a Lenovo dealer in Tampa. That took 5 minutes. While there I had them review Wayne’s handwritten almost unintelligible Evaluation Report. They informed me that the “problems” (codes) he had found were all fixable on site and some were not even problems and that the $335 charged was outrageous. (Wayne had also offered to replace the memory card once received for another $125). They further stated that replacing Kaspersky with Malwarebytes was just flat wrong as Malwarebytes is not a complete suite of antivirus software. Hence, he left my computer vulnerable to attack. Noteworthy, is that shortly after I disputed the $335 charged to my credit card my email address book was hacked.
THE HACK:
Diana discovered the hack when she noticed hundreds of “MAILER DAEMON – Failure Notices” in in our inbox. Below is an image of the email sent by whomever hacked my email address book. The whomever is Lester Shapiro (bigalft@yahoo.co.uk), which of course is not my email address. Notice the email says that I am in Manila, Philippines. Other versions have me in different cities all over the world. What’s strange is that there is no specific request for $$$ or an address where it should be sent. It appears if you respond to Lester Shapiro (bigalft@yahoo.co.uk) the hacker (crook, criminal, bad guy, etc.) will correspond and, I suspect, include an attachment that contains some walware; thus infecting your computer or, worse, he cons you into sending money.
AFTERMATH:
I replaced Malwarebytes with a top quality anti-virus software and enlisted their technical support people to perform a thorough check of my laptop. No malware (i.e., viruses, trojan horses, ransomeware or spyware) was found. So, Wayne does not appear to be a criminal. However, the hacking of my email address book shortly after I disputed the credit card charge is at best suspicious as a malicious act. Or, it could have been a coincidence related to the removal of my Kaspersky anti-virus software, in which case, Wayne’s INCOMPETENCE made the hack possible as he left my laptop vulnerable.
I also changed passwords as appropriate. Then, I posted a large number of reviews describing my unfortunate encounter with Spectacular Computer Repair. Payback is a bitch!
My loss! About two days time and a moderate amount of stress. Back in the days when I worked as a consultant for The Warranty Group, they billed my time at $2,000 per day. Hence, Wayne owes me $4,000 for my time. I suspect that I’m not likely to collect.
Written by Les
