SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Our NewsChannel Tipline investigation delves into the dark world of hackers and thieves. We all deal with passwords, two-factor authentication, security questions, multi-step whatevers, it’s maddening. We do all of that to stop or at least slow down the crooks. However, sometimes, even that’s not enough.
Michael Epley’s nightmare began last year. He was driving home from vacation in Mammoth Lakes when his son’s phone rang.
“It was Verizon and they were asking if I had just changed the administrator on my account and I told them, ’No, I hadn’t,’” said Epley.
A couple hours later, Epley arrived home.
“My friend was there house sitting and he said he had just called me and that somebody else answered the phone,” said Epley.
That’s when Epley realized something was wrong. He hadn’t received any text messages or phone calls for a while. So, he drove straight to…
