Baldwin Family Falls Victim To Scary Cyber Invasion Attack

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It all started with a phone call in the middle of the night.

"This guy says, 'Is this Mark?' And I said, 'Yes, who's calling? Can I help you?' And he says, 'I'm your worst enemy," said Mark Bishop of Baldwin.

The caller wasn't lying. From then on, the phone never stopped ringing at Mark and Maryann Bishop's house, calls from banks, stores and credit card companies about accounts opened up in their name.

If that wasn't enough, a few nights later, the Baldwin Police had their house surrounded.

"They had lights on the house, and they had a bullhorn, come to the door," said Maryann.

Unbeknownst to them, a 911 call appearing to originate from the house told a dispatcher there was a man inside with a gun terrorizing children. A few moments later, Mark was under arrest.

"I'm out here in the middle of the street with handcuffs on in the middle of the night," said Mark.

KDKA's Andy Sheehan: "Completely dismayed."

Mark: "Yeah, as to why it's going on."

They're a family under siege by unknown cyber assailants. Thieves have stolen their social security and bank account numbers, and their medical information.

The bishops are asking why us?

Sheehan: "You have any enemies?"

Mark: "Not that I know of."

Sheehan: "You have any idea who might want to do this to you?"

Mark: "No, and it seems so personal."

"These people did nothing wrong," says James Tormasi, of TiVERSA. "Except for maybe they shopped at a store that got hacked or maybe, they went to a hospital that leaked out their patient records."

Cyber security experts at the downtown offices of TiVERSA say cases like this are no longer rare as hackers, cyber thieves and even terrorist groups mine stolen personal data on what's called the dark web, billions of bits of personal information that are supposed to be safe and secure.

"A lot of these hackers do it for fun, a lot of them do it for financial gain, a lot of them do it just to see if they can get away with it," said Tormasi.

So far they have when it comes to the Bishops.

The FBI's only beginning to investigate, and despite spending hundreds of hours on the phone trying to clear things up, the family's credit is now ruined and so is their peace of mind.

"They've stolen our life," Maryann said.

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