HACKED!

[marcellis]

My GMail account was hacked March 29, 2011.

At least one forum member got an email from me. So if you do,

1. I'm not in Scotland.

2. I wasn't mugged.

3. Don't wire me any money.

(Well, you can wire me money if you insist -- but don't send it to that scammer's address. :evil: )

 

[walrus]

That sucks!! I had my phone line hacked a few weeks ago - luckily, no damage.

walrus

 

[Bikerdoc]

It's pretty darn frightening, eh? I watched a movie the other night where the national defense computer, becominng self-aware, decided it was "we the people", determined who was a traitor, and marked them for assasination. It wasn't Oscar material, the story line wasn't anything new, but it was intriguing to see how easily the computer took control over the everyday lives of a couple of average citizens to complete its task. And of course being the old coot I am, I can't remember the name of the flick. :shock:

Truly the computer age can be frightening and hackers are extraordinary. My PayPal account (now closed) was hacked a couple of years ago and I learned a valuable lesson. But still, you use a computer and go online you're taking a big risk. And somethings can be devastating.

Peace

 

[TonyT]

Dang, now i wonder who I sent that $500 to.

 

[killdeer43]

Dang, now i wonder who I sent that $500 to.

I didn't get it! :shock:

Joe

 

[frettedstrings]

KASPERSKY ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

 

[fronobulax]

KASPERSKY ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

I find the number of rumors linking Kaspersky Labs to non-United States intelligence agencies and criminal organizations to be disturbing enough that I prefer alternatives. I suppose our non-U.S. members would say, with justification, the same thing about Norton or McAfee.

 

[adorshki]

I let Facebook handle all my security needs. I boycott it.

 

[AlohaJoe]

So you're going to pay me back the $100 I sent, right?

 

[capnjuan]

I use AVG ... I think it's a German company ... they still write code for Win2K machines. It's pretty good with updates and offer a means to customize / limit searches to the areas/directories that are the likely targets.

10 years ago, somebody hacked my machine and my Outlook/Contacts file. What it left behind in my 'Sent' email was a naughty-gram intended to make me believe had been sent to everybody in my database.

I checked with a couple of people ... they didn't get the naughty-gram leaving me to conclude that it was either a bad (but wildly effective) practical joke :evil: .... or it was the good guys dressed up as bad guys whose ultimate message was practice safe computing.

AOL and gmail accounts are hacked to death; for awhile, lots of BBs wouldn't let you log on with those email accounts for fear of cooties.

 

[fronobulax]

AOL and gmail accounts are hacked to death; for awhile, lots of BBs wouldn't let you log on with those email accounts for fear of cooties.

To veer a little, I recall a time when networked computers were just escaping from the professional elite. If you had email, for example, there was a presumption that you had the technical savvy to run your own domain with its own mail server. Banning AOL addresses was a pretty good way to keep the great unwashed masses at bay...

 

[marcellis]

Here is what I think happened. I don't believe it was virus related.

1. I was surfing the web & was preparing to post on a blog somewhere.

2. It was a BLOGGER.COM domain - owned by Google. Be careful w/those.

3. To post - I had to sign in, and it the sign-in showed me my Gmail page.

***That is whee the damage was done. It was a fake page that looked identical
to my Gmail sign in. And I wasn't paying attention.

4. So I signed in and nothing happened. And I thought no more about it.

5. In the next several hours, these thieves spammed my address book fo money.

They didn't hack Paypal though. That's safe, thank God.

 

[dklsplace]

Just found that I had one from you in my junk mail from last week too. Hope the hotel bill got paid.... :lol:

 

[adorshki]

Here is what I think happened. I don't believe it was virus related.

Right. The vantivirus stuff is pretty good these days.

5. In the next several hours, these thieves spammed my address book fo money.
They didn't hack Paypal though. That's safe, thank God.

Yep most of that stuff related to email propogation is for that and related motives.
Sell your entire address list to all those spurious mongers of products of dubious worth, quality, and egality. Also possible takeover of your machine for a bot-net. You won't even know your machine's spamming.
Those guys aren't usually the ones looking to steal youe money right out from your accounts electronically, but they're more common than athlete's foot and harder to get rid of around all those social networking sites.
Just in case you never had to worry about it, the safest thing to protect any electronic banking you do is to NEVER EVER ever respond to an email containing a link, always INITIATE the log-on to your account(s) yourself. A litlle extra security is gained by signing off immediately and closing that window when business is concluded.

 

[marcellis]

Just found that I had one from you in my junk mail from last week too. Hope the hotel bill got paid.... :lol:

It shouldn't have been last week. It was just hacked 2 days ago.

But yeah, Aloha Joe was kind enough to pay my hotel bill.
And Tony T's CARE package got me a night out on the town.

So thanks everybody.