Something feels wrong: what to do first
Calm first steps for a suspected compromise: who to call, what to preserve, and what not to touch.
If something about your computer, your email, or your bank activity does not feel right, take a breath. Calm, deliberate steps beat fast, panicked ones, and you do not need to be certain anything is wrong to use this page. Checking with us about a false alarm costs nothing. Missing a real one costs plenty.
Do this first
- Text or call 701.306.0188, any hour. Your message goes directly to Michael, not a queue. If the situation involves your main computer, reach out from your phone instead.
- If money moved, call your bank right now. This is the one step that beats calling us. Banks can sometimes freeze or recall a transfer in the first hours, and the odds fall quickly after that. Tell them the payment may be fraudulent, ask what they can stop, and write down the time you called and the name of the person you spoke with.
- Take the affected computer off the network, and leave it alone. Unplug its network cable or turn off its Wi-Fi, then stop using it. Do not reset, wipe, reinstall, or run cleanup tools before the system has been reviewed. It feels like the responsible thing to do, and it destroys the evidence that tells us what happened, what was taken, and whether it spread.
- Keep the evidence. Do not delete the suspicious email, text, or file, and do not empty the trash. Do not reply to or forward a suspicious message. If you want to capture something, take photos of the screen with your phone.
- Use a device you trust. Reach us, and do any urgent account work, from a computer or phone that was not involved.
- Write down what happened while it is fresh. What was clicked or opened, what appeared on screen, roughly when, and who was involved. Three sentences with times in them are worth more than a perfect memory tomorrow.
What happens when you reach us
We talk through what you saw, decide together whether anything is actually wrong, and if it is, contain it and walk you through the next steps. The first conversation is free whether or not you are a client, and nobody gets judged for clicking something. That is what the layers are for.
Keep a printed copy. This page prints cleanly. The moment you need it may be the moment you do not trust your screen, so print it now and keep it near the phone or in the top drawer.
Did this not sort it out?
Tell Michael which step you got to and what the screen says. A photo of the screen from your phone is perfect.