'Real-Time Hacker' Sends Vulgar Messages Through Tulsa Woman’s Facebook

A scam artist takes over your computer and sends messages from your social media accounts; that’s what happened to a woman in Tulsa County, and deputies said it's the first real-time scam like this they have seen.

The victim said she was sitting at her computer, reading an article when the screen froze and a 1-800 number popped up on the screen telling her to call it for help.

She thought it was from her Internet provider, she picked up the phone expecting help, but instead of fixing her problem they made it even worse.

Online hackers usually get into an email or shopping account to steal person information, but this time a thief manipulated her computer to send out vulgar messages while she was on Facebook.

She watched it all in front of her computer screen, helpless.

"I was shocked, very shocked. It's the last thing in the world I expect to see," she said.

She said the man on the other end of the line was helpful at first but then wanted her to buy firewall protection.

"After he wanted to push the $199 deal on me and I said ‘Woah, back up, I'm not going to buy anything,’" the woman said.

She told him no dozens of times.

"After I got pretty angry, I hung up on him," she said.

She sat back, looking at her computer screen, and saw her cursor start to move. The hacker opened up Facebook messages and then sent obscene messages to her friends and family.

“’Hi how are you? I want to…you,'" she said. "I was sitting there and my chin was on the floor because my granddaughter was the next one."

Sheriff Deputies said this is the first real-time hacker they've seen in Tulsa County and believe she was targeted because the hacker knew she was online by stealing her IP address.

Corporal Michael Moore said finding that is relatively easy.

"Once they get your IP address they can trace it back to your service provider, whether it is AT&T or Cox, and sound more legitimate and say ‘Hi, I'm Jacob from AT&T,’” Moore said.

Deputies suggest not leaving your computer on all the time because it's easier to hack into.

They also say to stick with legitimate companies to do any kind of IT work and to purchase firewall and antivirus protection.