Probably one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of.

[thecomputerguy]

I was the IT guy for an Interior design company for 5-7 years. They grew from two people out of a home to a team in a new office that I helped build out. At some point the calls stopped and I learned that it was because they decided to use their "nephew" instead because he was charging them about 1/3rd of what I was charging and I was $95 /hr at the time.

I'm $175 /hr now.

Fast forward two years and they call me back (like they always do). Nephew isn't working out and they are having SERIOUS issues with credit card fraud and they have been charged over the course of a year about $300k-$400k in fraudulent charges and nephew can't figure it out. It was to the point where banks refused to issue them new cards because they were costing them so much money (not good for a company who buys furniture).

I go out there and do a preliminary assessment. Computers are now all Home BestBuy specials. The only protection is AVG Free. Router is an ASUS home Router. I decide then and there that this client would remain permanently on an as needed low priority basis and I would not be offering them an MSP contract due to the history and circumstance. Break/Fix ONLY and now my rate isn't $175, it's $200 per hour. I do basic cleanups and add my BitDefender and tell them to monitor and let me know if the credit card issues happen again.

Sure enough more credit card fraud. Long story short turns out IT Nephew blew it, half their computers had keyloggers on them and they couldn't even change their credit cards fast enough to keep up with them being stolen. I eventually got them all squared away after about 3 days of work and $3500 in labor charges.

The credit card fraud finally stopped and they remained on break/fix.

--

Fast forward 2 years to today. She calls me and she wants to make sure that her "WiFi" is secure because their old IT guy has turned out to be a criminal. He has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from family. I explain to her that since I've been back, in the last two years nearly everything has been replaced, you have an entirely new employee crew, it's literally completely FRESH and I see no way how he or anyone would be able to get access at this point.

Then she drops the bomb on me.

We still let him in here to do odd work. He's changed our locks, our padlocks, and we have occasionally had him install software on our computers when we felt like we didn't need you to do it. So he has KEYS, and CODES to lockboxes, PASSWORDS to computers, PHYSICAL ACCESS to computers, ACCES to the office AFTER HOURS.

I explain to her that there is a possibility that he was involved in this whole $300k-$400k credit card scheme from 2 years ago and she agreed. I told her she needed to report this to the police and she said she is just going to change the locks and she wants me to secure everything because she is "afraid" of him.

I'm honestly baffled. How can people be THIS DUMB.

 

[britechguy]

I'm honestly baffled. How can people be THIS DUMB.

I get your bafflement at the degree, but when it comes to family in particular, we all know about both the blind spots and the politics, too.

Family businesses tend to fit not in the great middle of the "well managed" bell curve, but at what would bthe tails. They're a skewed distribution by nature and are generally either well run or incredibly stupidly run.

You landed one in the latter bump of the skewed distribution.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Sometimes...you can't shake your head enough....

 

[phaZed]

Ugh. Denial is a powerful construct. I feel for them, but they really should use this as a wake-up call to get on your services - if you'll have them!

 

[ThatPlace928]

The word DUMB doesn't even seem adequate to describe this customer. I hope they don't pay you by credit card, considering all the fraud involved.

 

[thecomputerguy]

Ugh. Denial is a powerful construct. I feel for them, but they really should use this as a wake-up call to get on your services - if you'll have them!

I have clients that I've had for years that I refuse to even mention that I offer a monthly service contract because they are the type of people when you give them all they can eat they'll get fat.

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm honestly baffled. How can people be THIS DUMB.

When it comes to "family" there is no bottom to the amount of stupidity a human can engage in.

 

[britechguy]

When it comes to "family" there is bottom to the amount of stupidity a human can engage in.

I believe you meant "no bottom."

Also, it often seems (and this is an example) that the chances of the people in charge picking up the clue phone are either fat or slim.

 

[Markverhyden]

I believe you meant "no bottom."

Also, it often seems (and this is an example) that the chances of the people in charge picking up the clue phone are either fat or slim.

Yes. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[timeshifter]

I'd give the client a little benefit of the doubt. Some criminals can be very persuasive and an endearing. Think Bernie Madoff and other stories of male serial killers. He may have been a master salesman, charismatic, etc. as well as a criminal.

 

[britechguy]

I'd give the client a little benefit of the doubt. Some criminals can be very persuasive and an endearing. Think Bernie Madoff and other stories of male serial killers. He may have been a master salesman, charismatic, etc. as well as a criminal.

Regardless,

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me thrice, I deserve what I got.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I don't think it's limited to family. A small shop I worked at had an employee who was caught red handed stealing customer equipment and other persistent failures, yet because he knew the layout of the land, the seeming risk of firing him wasn't outweighed by the constant issues he created.

Never underestimate a humans ability to postpone what they should do today, tomorrow. Sometimes it piles up like a huge snowball that crushes your log cabin.

 

[britechguy]

I don't think it's limited to family.

I doubt that any of us having a family-centric discussion about this thinks it is, that was just the circumstance "this time."

But I do think that a special level of this kind of willful blindness and stupidity extends to family, though the basic level certainly does extend to myriad other people and circumstances.

 

[thecomputerguy]

The update here is that I didn't see how he could have any access to the Wi-Fi at their office or the clients home.

Client calls me yesterday in a panic because the Internet is down and it MUST have something to do with me replacing an AP of course.

Obviously no.

I go out there and determine the att fiber modem is alive but offline. I factory reset it and still no go. Hours later on the phone with att we agree to get someone out today. Att guy comes out says there is no light in the fiber. We get a spare key to the telephone room because they can't find theirs . Att guy goes into the telephone room and verifies there is no light and the port their fiber is plugged into is not live. He's there for 4 hours and just says ... "Sorry hope it fixes itself" and leaves.

I talk to the client and she believes that this bad actor has something to do with it. I explain I don't really see how that could happen because everything in the building is fine it's just the att fiber that is offline.

Att says that they need to cancel their account and sign up for the service again.

I have no idea what's happening.

Client re iterates that she thinks it has something to do with this guy. To which I explain no I can't see how that's possible it's clearly an att issue.

Why can't they find their key to the telephone room and they had to borrow a spare from the neighbor? Criminal guy has the key, or the copy of the key to the telephone room.

I really cant make this **** up.

 

[timeshifter]

Hope you're billing for all those hours!