Computer Confessions

   Sometimes you do things that are just so dumb and wrong that you have to finally confess.  It's a long story one I hope that you can learn from.  Sometime ago I recieved an email from my daughter in Amsterdam wanting me to look at a house.  It looked like a remax site.  So I opened it and looked at it.  To do that I had to put my email in.  I thought it was kind of strange- not her style of house and shortly after that she posted on facebook not to open any email from her about a house because her account had been hacked into.  Well I already had- so I ran my virus software and changed my email address and got nervous.  We had some friends come over and they told us their tale of having their email hacked into and someone ordered gift cards and merchandise on their wal mart account.  They got it straightened out and didn't have to pay but still it just makes you worry and I got more nervous.  My laptop computer, which I had used to open that bogus email began to run slow and wouldn't print.  I tried to contact a guy who had done some computer work for me but he wasn't reachable- apparently he moved or just stopped working on computers.  I figured I needed windows dumped and reloaded and he had done this for me before.  I left the laptop just sitting for a week or so and then I got it out again.  It seemed to work okay so I purchased a software program from my virus protection company- AVG that was supposed to improve your computer performance.  Well I couldn't get it to run after purchasing it so I called AVG to straighten this out.  Or so I thought I called AVG.  I talked to a nice computer guy who said he would check out my computer when I told him I was having printer problems.  He connected to the computer remotely and after some checks "a supervisor" got on the phone and told me my computer was infected with a trojan and someone else could monitor everything I did.  My worst nightmare was true!  Then they put the high power sale pitch on you- you know how that is.  For just 349$  they would fix everything and provide me lifetime virus protection with microsoft.  I still thought this was AVG and was beginning to think it somewhat strange.  Sahil said that they would refund the money I spent with AVG for virus protection, so against my better judgement I said okay.   The next day I became worried about the whole "purchase".  I called AVG and they do not offer telephone support.  The company that had "fixed" my computer was we24support maybe a real company but certainly with shady business practices.  I called my credit card company and reported the 349$ as fraud.  I also cancelled my credit card.  I'm not sure about my computer functioning as we speak.  Are the other two computers in the house in danger?  Was my computer really infected with a trojan?  Does we24support have all my information on my computer?  Am I liable to pay the 349$  It all makes my head spin and in the meantime I'm also whacking myself on the head for being so dumb.