posted July 22, 2012 10:37 PM            

Download AVG Free. It is free. I contains an antivirus, defends against malware, trojans, etc. It's not perfect. Nothing free is perfect. But it costs nothing and does a great job protecting you. If it tells you that a web site is bad, don't click on it, that's all.

posted July 22, 2012 11:36 PM            

Be warned that if a friend gets his account cracked then the virus or whatever might send itself to everyone on the address books (that is, if you get a file from a friend you weren't expecting then CONFIRM that your friend actually sent it before opening). This includes anything from "ecards" to "funny pix."

Also beware of anyone calling you on the phone to "help" you with your computer. I had one guy like that (sounded like he was from India and he had a very hard time with English) who managed to spoof Microsoft (that is it appeared I was being called by Microsoft, not that I believed it for a second) and he said Microsoft "detected viruses" or some such and he'd help me get rid of it. Of course I told him to go to hell (after he refused my polite request to take my name off his sucker list) and warned the kids against doing anything that man (or anyone like him) said. What happens if you follow their instructions is they take control of your computer and say if you ever used a credit card online they will then have access to that credit card.

(Tip: after playing nice didn't work I pretended to accept his call and say, "Let me go turn my computer on" and put the phone down and leave it, making sure the kids knew what was going on and told to do the same. This not only annoyed the hell out of him and eventually made him give up in trying to con us but also no doubt saved some suckers from his tricks, at least for awhile. I found you can't beat doing a good deed spiced up with pleasant revenge. )

In both of these cases AVG and the like aren't likely to do any good (as they're prepared for that). Though just to be clear I definitely support AVG and use them and Avast (and sometimes look up other helpful software to help like when my AVG kept detecting rootkits but couldn't get rid of them).

posted August 03, 2012 09:51 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by PixieJane:
Be warned that if a friend gets his account cracked then the virus or whatever might send itself to everyone on the address books (that is, if you get a file from a friend you weren't expecting then CONFIRM that your friend actually sent it before opening). This includes anything from "ecards" to "funny pix."

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This just happened to me. I got an email from someone I hadn't heard from in years yesterday that simply had a link in it that said "Private Message." I emailed her back to ask if it was legite and today she said no, she was hacked and trying to clean it up.

It pays not to open files even from friends until you KNOW they sent it and not some virus that took over their account and sent itself to infect your computer and/or account as well.

posted August 21, 2012 05:37 PM            

Then I got to wondering, what if the spambot opened up my closed account (as all it would have to do is sign in to reactivate it) but I emailed it from my current box and it always came back, so it was closed. After like a week I went ahead and reopened it and found that all the emails I hadn't deleted were still there. And much more importantly, days later my account hasn't been spoofed to send out spam. Even better, that account was a spam magnet anyway but it's hardly getting any spam at all now.

posted August 21, 2012 06:10 PM            

Grrr

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 22, 2012 02:30 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ami Anne:
I got another one that sent weird e mail out to people.

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posted August 22, 2012 01:06 PM            

How can you tell if an account has been hacked ... aside from spam flooding your inbox?

What are the different things that can happen after an acc. has been hacked? I'd like to know specifically w.r.t. the e-mail acc., and not the rest of the computer.

Also, if anyone knows, is this a common occurrence? Because I've never heard of anyone complain to me (in real life) that their e-mail acc got hacked.

Then again, maybe I haven't heard because people think there would be no point telling me as my eyes would glaze over anyway

But seriously, I'd really like to understand.

Thanks.

posted August 22, 2012 01:07 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
What kind of weird e-mail did it send out ... the same ad that you received?

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Yes, the same one.It was for a home based business so I guess I lucked out,as it was not for Viagra

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 22, 2012 01:40 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ami Anne:

Yes, the same one.It was for a home based business so I guess I lucked out,as it was not for Viagra or something

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posted August 22, 2012 04:26 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
What are the different things that can happen after an acc. has been hacked? I'd like to know specifically w.r.t. the e-mail acc., and not the rest of the computer.

Also, if anyone knows, is this a common occurrence? Because I've never heard of anyone complain to me (in real life) that their e-mail acc got hacked

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If an account (as opposed to the computer) is infected then what typically happens is that the virus tells your account to send copies of itself out. This allows spam to reach a lot more people (because people block spammers so it needs as many puppet accounts it can find to get around that) and the more people it gets to then the more stupid people who will click on its link and thus the more money the spammer gets paid as part of the link gives the spammer credit with the sponsor. (As a side benefit it also helps protect them from vengeful hackers who know how to screw with these guys right back, in which case any such counterattack is likely to target the poor person who was hijacked than the actual spammer. Even those hackers who realize it's not your fault may think you're not worthy of playing on the net anyway if you allow yourself to become infected and strike at you anyway, though I believe that's very rare. After all, there are other ways to hack accounts without the victim being at all responsible.)

Just to be clear a real live person only rarely sees to this personally. Usually a person creates software that creates itself and sends itself out over and over again. That's why they're often called "spambots" because they're more like robots rather than a live person. This is also why it's pointless to comment to spambots on messageboards (unless it's to warn any fool from clicking the links and thus getting the spammer paid and the site more popular with other spammers as well) because the spammer doesn't even know about the board, let alone visit it.

How do you know if it was your account specifically? Generally 1 of 2 things happen: One thing it might do is send itself to everyone in your address book (and thus everyone you regularly email, assuming it's "recorded" into your account) will get it (and likely tell you about it), and anyone who clicks it (who will typically get mad at you instead of their own own stupidity at thinking something so weird was actually from you when the 2 of you should instead be commiserating) will then also become infected (unless they have very good anti-virus or like if they use LINUX which make many viruses impossible, or so I understand, though LINUX isn't for beginners so I wouldn't advise you to switch to it) and the other thing is that it might instead start sending itself to an endless combinations of targets in which case it will inevitably email dead or nonexistent accounts and thus will bounce back to yours as an "undeliverable." If you get a bunch of these then your account is a major source of spam on the net.

posted August 22, 2012 04:38 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by doommlord:
and i thought you went crazy when you started sending me those ads XD

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Did you seriously get them lol

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 22, 2012 04:40 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Ami Anne:
Did you seriously get them lol

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posted August 22, 2012 04:53 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by doommlord:
yes...several...one of the wierdest moments of my life

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Oh Man
Actually, I never told her this but I got them from Lonake. I wanted to respect her by looking but then I guess I got my e mail in there and they started sending out by themselves.
I assume she did not know about it, either. I changed my password and they stopped. I didn't even know until an enemy wrote me "DON"T SEND ME THESE FREAKING E MAILS "

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 22, 2012 09:15 PM            

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain. It's very enlightening.

If I may I'd like to ask another question which occurred to me while reading your post. So from what I understand, if my acc gets hacked, then typically it will result in sending out spam to those on my contact list or to dead accs. causing me to get "undeliverable" messages.

And since you said that there isn't usually a live person behind these hacks, the infection is typically restricted to the sending out of spam versus personal messages, right?

Meaning, it's not like a live person will get into your acc. and start sending out personal e-mails to everyone on your contact list speaking about things that would normally be known only between you and your close friends ... for example spreading offensive gossip or slander that could affect only you or your close group of friends, right?

Am I correct in concluding that spambots and typical hacking cannot do that sort of thing?

Thanks again Pixie

posted August 22, 2012 10:54 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain. It's very enlightening.

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YW

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
So from what I understand, if my acc gets hacked, then typically it will result in sending out spam to those on my contact list or to dead accs. causing me to get "undeliverable" messages.

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Yes. In the latter case it actually spams countless accounts (and I think they can even use your account to join messageboards to spam them as well) and will inevitably get dead or nonexistent accounts (and may also spam some repeatedly so that your account gets blocked) which results in an "undeliverable" notice. It's a safe bet that the "undeliverable" mail is but a very tiny fraction of the spam that's actually sent out from your account.

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
And since you said that there isn't usually a live person behind these hacks, the infection is typically restricted to the sending out of spam versus personal messages, right?

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Yes.

That said, many will add something that seems innocent (typically "click this, it's funny!" or "my e-card to you" and I got one recently that simply had a link that said "Private Message" but I knew better than to click it and when I asked the person who owned the account she said she'd just gotten infected so I dodged the bullet in not clicking the link).

IOW, if you get an email from a trusted friend but it doesn't make sense then the account has probably been hijacked (and seeking to hijack yours as well). Personally, I ALWAYS verify that they sent me a link before opening unless I can expect it (for example, one friend kept forwarding BBC stories she thought I'd like so after awhile I came to trust those and not seeking verification, but only BBC links from that one person).

quote:

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Originally posted by Linda Jones:
Meaning, it's not like a live person will get into your acc. and start sending out personal e-mails to everyone on your contact list speaking about things that would normally be known only between you and your close friends ... for example spreading offensive gossip or slander that could affect only you or your close group of friends, right?

Am I correct in concluding that spambots and typical hacking cannot do that sort of thing?

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Correct. Now someone who knows you well could conceivably make a program that did, but it would have to be specially tailored for you. Otherwise they couldn't know any personal info about you other than what you have on your profile. And even when it examines content a spambot cannot actually think (and thus spam that tries to pass itself off as a response on messageboards often tends to be nonsensical as it's literally prepogrammed responses that randomly picks a few words or phrases out to incorporate).

If I found someone had did that to me I'd look at people I know, and I'd also check my computer logs as best I could because it was probably done from my computer. However, if someone knows your account they can use programs such as a rainbow table to crack your password and thus read your emails (that includes going to Sent Messages and seeing the emails you sent to others) and use your account as if they were you. But they'd still have to know you pretty well and/or be able to find the info they needed from your saved email, and in any case it would be a live person personally involved, not a mere spambot (and the vast majority of computer crackers don't have the time to do that to people they don't know).

posted August 22, 2012 11:17 PM            

This is all awesome information for me. No I wasn't referring to any LL drama, 'cause I'm unaware that smth happened on the board.

Neither has such a situation happened to me or to anyone I know. I guess everyone is really careful about their accs.

But you've made a lot of very helpful suggestions on how to be careful, and because now ... for the first time I really understand the reason for it, I'm going to make doubly certain I'm protected.

From you I've learned that having a good firewall isn't enough. We have to additionally be careful of the way we use our computers and accounts too.