Has This Ever Happened To You?

[Lord Jim]

After I came home from running some errands, I went to check my Yahoo email...(I have a number of email addresses associated with different hosts related to my businesses, but this is my main one)

And I discovered, that in my absence, someone had hacked into my email account and sent "No Subject" emails (supposedly from me) to everyone in my address book....(with a link to a Viagra site)

Now, it's all been straightened out....

And it does have it's comedic elements....I had to call an 87 year old aunt of mine to tell her that I wasn't suggesting that she purchase Viagra.... (When I called my main web development guy to tell him I wasn't suggesting that he purchase Viagra, he pointed out that it could have been worse....the hacker could have included a link for a "donkey show".... )

I know that Yahoo's system is very vigilante about this sort of thing....(If I try to send someone more than three website links in the body of an email, it usually stops me and makes input a turing code to attest that it's legitimate)

I'm just curious to know if anyone one else has had this problem recently with any of the major public email carriers (Yahoo, G-mail, Hotmail)

[Crackpot]

same thing happened to a friend of mine

[Gob]

That happened to my old hotmail address...

But I can still get you cheap viagra if you need some Jim

[Lord Jim]

But I can still get you cheap viagra if you need some Jim

What, and leave Hen a "widow"...?

I wouldn't think of it Old Darling....

[rubato]

Yahoo is in the process of becoming a smaller and less important company than they think they are.

Look for more layoffs.

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

I was going to post about something similar that happened to me:

I vowed I would never open a FaceBook account, because of all the security failures they seem to have regarding advertisers, (Ooops, we gave out ALL your info to a spammer. Oops, it happened again. Oops, now why does that keep happening? )
Lately, my friend Alpha Dog doesn't have the time to email his pics to all parties and told us to just check his FaceBook account for updates. I put it off, since you just can't look at a person's page, but have to login. Finally, I decided to open a dummy account, using my online alias. I gave them no real information other than a working email address, that I figured would be used for confirmation purposes. There was no request for any permissions from me.
To my shock, the first thing that FaceBook offered me with my membership was 'friending' everyone it had found in my contacts list [!!!] The damn thing had opened my account without permission or password. How the hell ...!?
I quickly deleted the account with an 'o-shit' and I'm never opening that site again.



I should have known something was fishy, when Miles said he didn't have a FaceBook account, but I'd received requests to 'check out his pics'.

I'm really beginning to think they got so big, through nefarious means.

[Miles]

Cali, I did open a facebook account for a few days but was incomfortable with it. I tried to delete it but they only placed it on inactive status which I find disturbing. My wife and kids are registered there and it is amazing just how much personal information is out there.

[Mr. Duality]

same thing happened to a friend of mine

Ditto.

I quit using Yahoo email for anything confidential or important after quotes from private emails appeared on a semipublic yahoo page, appearing something like "Mr. Duality commented on...".

[loCAtek]

Cali, I did open a facebook account for a few days but was incomfortable with it. I tried to delete it but they only placed it on inactive status which I find disturbing. My wife and kids are registered there and it is amazing just how much personal information is out there.

I did notice that you can only deactivate not delete an account, MIles, but i think I've found a way around that.

If my source is correct, you 'deactivate' and TOTALLY ignore FaceBook's request to look at this and that page for 14 days. If you so much as follow a link, it will keep your account open in a deactivated status.
You have to not trigger the site for at least 14 days, for your account to delete. So, clear your history and cookies as well.

[Miles]

Cali, I did open a facebook account for a few days but was incomfortable with it. I tried to delete it but they only placed it on inactive status which I find disturbing. My wife and kids are registered there and it is amazing just how much personal information is out there.

I did notice that you can only deactivate not delete an account, MIles, but i think I've found a way around that.

If my source is correct, you 'deactivate' and TOTALLY ignore FaceBook's request to look at this and that page for 14 days. If you so much as follow a link, it will keep your account open in a deactivated status.
You have to not trigger the site for at least 14 days, for your account to delete. So, clear your history and cookies as well.

Thanks, I definately will leave it alone. It's already been close to if not past the 14 days.

[loCAtek]

Unfortunately, this means like Miles, all my contacts have probably all been emailed with requests to view my account

..but it could have been worse;

Hacker uses Facebook to break into email accounts.;


For nine months, up until he was arrested in October, George Samuel Bronk hijacked the email accounts of hundreds of women who live in 17 different states as well as in England.
California attorney general Kamala Harris issued a press release that states Bronk, 23, searched Facebook for women who posted both their e-mail addresses and other personal information including their favorite foods, father’s middle names and favorite colors.

He used this information to figure out the ladies’ passwords. When a “Forgot your Password” prompt would show up, Bronk would use the personal information to pass the identity challenge, change the password and get into the email account.

Once in the email account, Bronk reportedly searched the outboxes for nude photos or videos. He would often send them to everyone on the women’s contact list. It was also reported that Bronk would threaten the women that he would publicize the photos unless they sent more revealing videos and photos directly to him.


MSNBC reports: Police confiscated Bronk’s computer in October … they found more than 170 files of explicit photographs stolen from e-mail accounts he had hijacked … The Attorney General’s office e-mailed 3,200 questionnaires to women who may have been targeted. Forty-six women replied that they had been victimized.


In some cases, Bronk would use the email account to contact Facebook to change the password on the site. He would then proceed to take over the womens' Facebook accounts as well.


How much personal information do you reveal on Facebook? Your email, telephone number, favorite color? If these coincide with your lost password challenge prompt, or at the very least, your password, it’s time to use less personal and more secure information to protect yourself. Limiting the amount of information you post online is a good start.

Bronk has been held on $500,000 bail since October. He will be in court for sentencing in March.

Be warned: FaceBook is evil

[BoSoxGal]

I've received spam emails from several friends whose Yahoo email accounts were hacked. Nobody's ever informed me of receiving one from me, though I still have a Yahoo email that I use primarily to conduct business (it's the email I give when purchasing online, opening accounts, etc.).

I guess I just don't 'get' the paranoia about Facebook. Yes, there is a lot of personal information out there on the site, posted by millions of people. If your personal information isn't damaging, how does using the site put you at risk for harm? (Duh, don't post your credit card information.)

We find evidence on Facebook all the time that is included in our prosecutions of defendants - stupid people on release conditions posting photos of themselves out drinking in the bars when the court has ordered that they can't engage in such behavior while on probation.

[loCAtek]

Stalkers, like the above. My contacts list still has my Ex's address in it. I don't want him having any information about me, he's an unscrupulous person.

[Crackpot]

then don't put it out there. you can control how much information goes out.

Just because it asks if you want to do something doesn't mean it does it without permission.

[Lord Jim]

stupid people on release conditions posting photos of themselves out drinking in the bars when the court has ordered that they can't engage in such behavior while on probation.

The police are doing those folks a favor by tossing them back in the klink...

It's only a matter of time before someone that stupid does something like grab a downed power line....

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "protective custody".....

I also like those public spirited criminals who aid law enforcement by helpfully videotaping themselves committing crimes, and then post the videos on line...

One of my personal favorites was a couple of years ago when a group of MacArthur Grant recipients videotaped themselves busily working away in their meth lab.....

Now if they'd just drive themselves to the police station....

[Gob]

a cautionary tale for users of social networking sites, a California man has admitted using personal information he gleaned from Facebook to hack into women's email accounts, then send nude pictures of them to everyone in their address book.

The California attorney general's office said that George Bronk, 23, commandeered the email accounts of dozens of women in the US and England. He then scanned the women's "sent" folders for nude and seminude photos and videos, and forwarded any he found to all the women's contacts, prosecutors said.

Bronk coerced one woman into sending him more explicit photographs by threatening to distribute the pictures he already had. One victim told authorities the intrusion felt like "virtual rape".

Advertisement: Story continues below Bronk, who lives in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, pleaded guilty last week to seven felonies in Sacramento County Superior Court, including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... 19st4.html

[loCAtek]

then don't put it out there. you can control how much information goes out.

Just because it asks if you want to do something doesn't mean it does it without permission.

I didn't give them permission to open my contact list, they just did it.

They didn't ask Miles permission to email his contacts with FaceBook requests, they just did it.

They routinely, 'accidentally' have security failures where your info gets out without permission.

I don't trust them ...but that's just me.

[Reality Bytes]

The problem is that people and even reporters use the term "hacking" to cover any and all types of security breach or email hijack - hacking is rare, more often than not the accounts have been "cracked" or "spoofed" and theres a big difference between all 3 different terms.

The facebook story Gob posted is a classic example it says the guy used personal info gleaned from the women to hack into their accounts - more likely he used personal info they gave him or had in their profiles which enabled him to either guess their passwords or use a program to do it faster he then gains "legitimate" access to her account by logging in as "her" only he hasn't "hacked" her email provider he's cracked HER account. People make it real easy for others to do this because they choose a password they find easy to remember so it often has real words in it and or significant dates/numbers, plus they tend to reuse the same password for lots of different accounts, one someones "cracked" it then everything else is vulnerable.

As for Facebook not asking permission to access the contact list - yes it does my hubby freaked out when his contact list came up when he was sigining up, luckily he yelled for me to come help and I showed him the teeny weeny little bit of text and a tick box which is where you say no thanks don't do that. It is VERY easy to overlook but if you don't tick that box you are deemed to have given your permission. Facebook relies upon distraction (and imo that makes it very unethical) for example it asks if you want it to help you find friends the easy way - thats when it uses your contact list to email everyone on it and invite them to join.... it doesn't make it clear thats what it's going to do nor does it give you much control over who gets asked it pretty much asks everyone.

It has some very robust privacy settings ... problem is they are way way too complicated and you pretty much have to go in and set them for every single blinking new thing you do on there, the default is always "yes I give permission" - mine are set up as "customised" meaning that I have control over much of my privacy settings BUT I know that there are some apps that are on there I just haven't got round to. Like most facebook users I think they need to make it MUCH less complicated and explain fully exactly what info is being shared and with whom. My frtiends list is also set up carefully - some friends can see absolutely everything I share, others are in a group which only lets them see what I allow them to see, including who else is on my friends list

Top tip for signing up to facebook... use a brand new email addy that is ONLY used for facebook and sign up with fake info, ditto for Twitter.

[loCAtek]

There're still rat bastards for not letting you delete your account. I was just tricked into looking at a FaceBook page by Gob. ...and I'm getting sneaky spam to make me open the site again, too.

It goes in junk mail but I get these 'Facebook' messages that say they're from 'Emily', when I don't know any Emilies. Even if I'm not fooled into replying to Emily, the note at the bottom says, this message was intended for 'Tom' and if I'm not Tom could I go to FaceBook and correct that?

[oldr_n_wsr]

I had this happen to my yahoo account last year or so. Now I change my password every month (or whenever I remember to). Hasn't happened since.

I don't do facebook nor twatter.