A Husband Never Imagined That His Stay-at-Home Wife Was Actually a Hacker — Because When Their Hard-Earned ₱500,000 for Their Child’s Surgery Was Scammed, She Didn’t Cry… She Opened Her Old Laptop
Ramon sat blankly on the sofa, his hands trembling.
The call had just ended.
Someone claiming to be a “bank representative” had called to “secure” his account. Out of fear and panic, he gave away the OTP. In an instant, a notification appeared on his phone:
You have successfully transferred PHP 500,000.00.
Five years of savings.
The money meant for their son Jun-jun’s heart surgery next week.
All gone.
His wife Carla came in from the kitchen. She wore a faded house dress, a towel over her shoulder, and her hands smelled of garlic. She looked like a typical housewife who knew nothing beyond housework.
“Pa, dinner’s ready,” Carla said cheerfully.
But she froze when she saw Ramon’s pale face.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
Ramon burst into tears.
“Ma… forgive me. I was so stupid. I got scammed. The money for Jun-jun… it’s gone. They took everything.”
Ramon expected Carla to scream.
To pull her hair.
To shout at him.
To collapse in heartbreak.
But that’s not what happened.
Carla suddenly went silent. Her gentle expression turned serious. The meek housewife aura disappeared, replaced by a cold, sharp gaze.
“What time did it happen?” Carla asked calmly. Her voice did not shake.
“H-Huh? Just now… maybe five minutes ago…”
“What number called you? Which bank account did the money go to?”
“It’s in the text… but Ma, there’s nothing we can do! We need to go to the police!”
“The police won’t be able to do anything within the first hour, Ramon,” Carla said evenly. “By then, the money will already be withdrawn or scattered across ten different accounts.”
Carla turned and walked into the bedroom.
When she came back, she wasn’t holding a broom.
She was holding an old black laptop—thick, dusty, clearly unused for years. It had been hidden under a trunk.
Powering on…
Her fingers moved fast.
Click. Clack. Click. Clack.
She didn’t open Facebook.
A black screen filled with green code appeared.
“M-Ma? What are you doing? You know computers?” Ramon asked in shock.
As far as he knew, his wife only used her phone to watch Tulfo videos.
Carla didn’t answer. Her eyes were locked on the screen, scanning data like lasers.
“Tracing IP address… bypassing firewall… accessing backdoor server…” Carla muttered.
Meanwhile, inside a condo unit in Quezon City…
A group of scammers were celebrating.
“Jackpot, bros! Five hundred thousand! One click from a stupid dad!” shouted their leader, Boss Kadyo.
They opened beers, laughing while counting their stolen money.
Kadyo held his laptop, about to transfer the money to an offshore account so it could never be recovered.
Suddenly—
ERROR. ACCESS DENIED.
“Huh? What happened?” Kadyo panicked. “Did the internet go down?”
The laptop screen went black.
Then it turned red.
A giant skull appeared on the screen.
All their bank accounts—not only Ramon’s money, but the millions they had stolen from others—suddenly dropped to zero balance.
SYSTEM LOCKDOWN INITIATED.
“Boss! I can’t control the mouse!” one of them shouted.
“Boss! Our CCTV outside just went offline!”
“Boss! The electronic door lock won’t open! We’re trapped!”
Back at Ramon and Carla’s house…
Carla pressed ENTER firmly.
“Gotcha,” she whispered.
She turned to Ramon, who was staring at her with his mouth wide open in shock.