I may have been hacked !!!!!!

onecoolair · Mar 5, 2013

woodster said:
if anyone gets an email from me asking for money plz let me know as i think i have been hacked......i got up this morning and ck my mail and it was gone along with my addresses.....i know that this is not sail related but it does include anyone on my mail and contact list....i am very sorry for this but i have no idea how to fix this other than changing my pass word.....

regards

woody

You mean your not on vacation in London and needing money for a ticket home??

anchorclanker · Mar 5, 2013

Unrelated, but the password to my google email account was changed. I was able to recover it by using an old password, but its just really odd. It seems likely its a glitch in their system, but nobody's talking

Ralph Johnstone · Mar 5, 2013

But .........................

...................... I've just mailed you a cheque for $500.00 and I'm awaiting your bank draft of $10,000,000.00 from the Bank of Nigeria. And I just told my boss where he can stick this job.

Well, I suppose today can't get too much worse

.

Indysailor · Mar 5, 2013

anchorclanker said:
Unrelated, but the password to my google email account was changed. I was able to recover it by using an old password, but its just really odd. It seems likely its a glitch in their system, but nobody's talking

Gmail is not immune from hacking, which is likely what happened, but they are also pretty good at letting you know when someone from an ip address different from your normal one has accessed your account. Best to keep the passwords (or rather a passphrase if you really want to be secure) fresh.

onecoolair · Mar 5, 2013

anchorclanker said:
Unrelated, but the password to my google email account was changed. I was able to recover it by using an old password, but its just really odd. It seems likely its a glitch in their system, but nobody's talking

Last week I got a spam email from my business email to my personal email account. Along with about a hundred plus email failures to my bussiness email....The a-hole did not use the bcc function so I was able to see the old email accounts of past and a few current clients.... I believe it was an old client list from a old roadrunner or maybe g-mail account ? Not sure?? I started hearing from clients wondering what this was about and was it save to click on the link. I had to act fast and send out a warnings to all my contacts. Took some security precautions ...Keeping fingers crossed everything has been quite so far?

MrBill_FLL · Mar 5, 2013

FWIW....

this is a major PITA, but all of my family emails, have 'nospam_' infront of the @ symbol.

which means, I need to edit the email before I send each time. -but some of my family is not so sophisticated that they would know I was not kidnapped and needed 10k sent by western union by noon today.

JohnS · Mar 5, 2013

[Stepping up on the soapbox]

Strong passwords are the best defense. I now use a minimum of 12 characters with a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers, and punctuation and NO words of ANY language. Believe me, I know it's a PITA, but it's better than getting hacked. To make it easier, I pick a phrase or the lyrics of some obscure song I know, and use the first letter (or a substituted number or letter) of each word in the phrase. Be creative w/ punctuation: # can be "hash" or "pound", ! can be "bang" or "HEY", ~ can be "wave" or "wiggle",.... Same with numbers.

I've got to remember so many passwords, and change them so frequently that some times I combine two complex passwords to make a longer more complex one. Yeah it takes longer to type the first couple weeks, but I use them every day and eventually muscle memory makes it faster (and I'm normally a hunt and peck typist).

Another good idea is to use a "Password Safe" type program to record all the passwords you use, and then use one Very Strong password that you will Never forget to lock the safe. I've got one on my phone, but I know there are programs that run on all computers/devices.

RonRelyea · Mar 5, 2013

and ... DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS - EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE SENDER!

John's advice about passwords is great ...

and ...

on most mail readers, if you hover your mouse cursor over a hotlink to a web address DO NOT CLICK ON IT) , it will usually show the REAL address for the web link ... the Hotlink can be made to say anything .... IE: Holink might say "BankOfAmerica" but when you hover over it, the real address might put you on a site in China or Nigeria!

Bill Roosa · Mar 5, 2013

Good morning
I'm and IRS official and we have monitored you receiving $1.2 million dollars. Numerous individuals have been contactd by South African and Middle Eastern individuals to illegally move money into the US. You will be contacted shortly by our tax collection office to pay the 50% tax on your recent tranaction. If you fail to pay this tax we will contact the FBI to assist in collecting it.
This is not a joke, you owe this tax and are legallily bound by US tax law to pay it.

John U. Ome
US IRS Tax Collection Office
Internal Revenue Service

Scott B · Mar 5, 2013

woodster said:
if anyone gets an email from me asking for money plz let me know as i think i have been hacked......i got up this morning and ck my mail and it was gone along with my addresses.....i know that this is not sail related but it does include anyone on my mail and contact list....i am very sorry for this but i have no idea how to fix this other than changing my pass word.....

regards

woody

Oh, so you're ok then??? Could you send back the $10,000 I sent to your bank account ???

Ron20324 · Mar 5, 2013

I was online at 0200 last week when my MSN account locked up. Had to call India. They said numerous attempts at my password had been made, but to no avail. They just wanted to make sure it was me. I went through the hoops and got a new password.

finding41 · Mar 5, 2013

Got to love those scam artists! Always trying.
I have a certified check for $3600. sitting at in my shop. (Shouldn't probably leave it laying around in the shop but I haven't got a frame for it yet.) It came as payment for a rental unit. The rent was only 600/mo but this guy wanted me to forward the overage to his shipping guy for payment for his move to my unit....
I called the guy and palyed him and his shipping agent for about 2 weeks! ( I told him I was too busy and too wealthy to worry about such a trivial amount of $ and hadn't cashed or deposited the check because my accountant had it.) We spoke on the phone numerous times! Even the sipping agent too! (Quite the soap opera... Couple of days in and the guys mom died. I offered to help with funeral expenses once he got moved in.)
Poor guy never got here.

Sad but people are had by these scams every day.

Here is something I read about that is really frightening. Would you miss a $.05 charge on your credit card bill? Probably wouldn't even call the CC company and ask what it was for either.... Well either would about 1000000 people each mo.
Cha ching! $5 million.

Ken13559 · Mar 6, 2013

Woodster, you owe me $50. But if you get email from me asking for $100, can we call it even?