It's been awhile, here's the reason.

Russell Street

Russell Street

I'm putting this in the "General Discussion" area even though it should go to "Off Topic" because it affects everybody who uses these forums. I want to reach the largest possible audience with it.

A week ago last Thursday, I tried to get on AOL and couldn't get on. No problem, it's one of those times when it's not acting right. Got home at noon Friday, same thing, not able to access AOL. Got on-line with Internet Explorer, but not AOL. Called Frontier (my internet provider) and they checked all of their end.....everything OK.

Now we call AOL to complain about the problem. Guy says my account has been "secured/locked down" due to "suspicious activity". I asked what that means. He advised me that our AOL account had been "severly compromised" (HACKED!!!) and that he was referring me to Security/Fraud/Technical Services for assistance!!!! WOW!!! Felt like somebody kicked me right in the gut!!

Worked with them for several minutes to give them control of my computer. When they finally got it, he showed me all the "JUNK" this clown had imbedded in my computer. He was sending sh!t all over the world using our e-mail address!! Somehow he "backdoored" a way into the computer through the AOL account and had basically "hijacked" it. Had COMPLETE ACCESS to the computer AND IT'S ENTIRE CONTENTS...........every bit of information, everything!!!! We keep a neat 3 ring binder of all of our computer related things, neatly printed, including all of the sites that we visit/use, the user names and passwords!!!!! Anybody want to guess where the "original" to the document was...........yep, you guessed it, it was a document in the Word program in the computer!!!! I gave him the damn road map to screw us with!!!

I contracted with the recommended provider, and proceeded to allow them to fix the problem(s). It took several days, lots of time spent on the phone with a guy who doesn't live in Texas, and more grief than I care to ever endure again. Last Tuesday, we were told that all of the damage was repaired, every nook and cranny, every bit of information had been checked, rechecked, then checked again to make sure all traces of the problems are gone. Some very expensive software to prevent this from ever happening again was installed, and is now operating full time. There is a "sniffer" program running on here all of the time.

Bottom line.........we lost $400.00 out of one of our accounts in Arizona, it cost over $350.00 for the software and the "technical services" required to fix it all. AFTER that was all done, the real fun began. I/we spent 2+ days getting all of our accounts redone, we had to change our banking to another bank because our local account was so severely compromised that we couldn't recover it. The bank's IT/Security Department recommended that we move the account(s). We had to reset all of the things that we do on-line. New user names, new passwords and security question, everything!!

Let me tell you about passwords........NEVER, NEVER, NEVER leave a "remembered password" anywhere on your computer. Take the extra few seconds to sign in everytime! Don't use any part of your birthdate, anniversary, name, or anything of that nature in any password!! If a password allows you to use a lot of characters....DO IT the more the better, and mix it up. Letters (including case sensitive) symbols, numbers, spaces......DO IT!! Do not record them anywhere in your computer. Keep a handwritten record of them somewhere else!!

I hope by sharing this, that we've saved somebody else from having this problem. The last week and a half have been a living hell dealing with it!! We came real close to throwing the damn computer out in the road and never having one again!!
 
It may be better to use someone local to do computer repairs as you have no idea who you may be talking to on the telephone. I heard of someone getting duped by a scam that locked up their computer and hooked them into allowing access from someone over the telephone.:my2cents:
 
Ive never had this problem (knock on wood), but Ive heard the horror stories so much that Ive often wondered if it is all worth id and at times have considered going off the grid. Just google your own name sometime, you will not beleive how much your name will appear!!
Good point on having your computer remember passwords (As I always do), I think now I better change that.
I do know I get many emails in my inbox with other PCS members names, but always with the generic subject line: hi, hi john, for john, etc, I NEVER open them.

This is a good time to mention if anyone gets an email from me I will ALWAYS have either PCS, hearse or related subject mentioned, never hi, or a blank subject line.


sorry to hear about your troubles. If these deadbeats put the effort in having a real job, instead of screwing someone else out of their hard earned money, the owrld would be a much better place.
 
Rich Koski said:
It may be better to use someone local to do computer repairs as you have no idea who you may be talking to on the telephone. I heard of someone getting duped by a scam that locked up their computer and hooked them into allowing access from someone over the telephone.:my2cents:
Click to expand...

Rich, we were directed to the Fraud section of AOL who in turn transferred us to a secure provider of the services we needed. Trust me, I was very careful about that.
 
I hear ya man. My hotmail account and eBay account both had been hacked a few weeks ago but shut down by eBay before any damages happened. Thank goodness my PayPal and bank accounts are handled seperately. Last week we caught a guy in the hotel parking lot streaming off our wireless internet, called the cops, booted him out of here.

Word is if you need to uninstall JAVA if you have it on your computer. Read article.

http://www.zdnet.com/java-allows-open-hunting-season-for-hackers-experts-find-7000009701/
 
Also, sometimes its best to use the on-screen keyboard when typing in passwords and sensitive information. Just incase a keylogger finds its way into your system
 
I've also seen a lot of people have problems if they use the same password for everything. If you have the same password for everything and someone figures out your password and the standard username you pick for websites/email, they may gain access to way more than just your email. They could gain access to your ebay, bank accounts, credit cards and other online sellers like Amazon.

Russ is right that passwords that use capital letters, lowercase, numbers, other characters etc, are way less likely to become hacked. They are more difficult to hack typically too. This is partly because if someone is sniffing your network traffic and you have passwords with capitals, numbers and signs the hacker may assume that you have your system encrypted. Unless the hacker is really good and really has the time to deal with it, they will most likely try to hack someone that is an easier target.

Not typing up your passwords in some password file is a given, but better yet, don't write them down anywhere. All it takes is having the wrong person in your house finding your password notebook to have things hacked again. If you're worried about remembering all of them just in your head, there are password protected apps for phones that can remember your passwords for you. They are encrypted too. If you use those though to remember your passwords, it's best to only use it to remember your passwords, not to remember your usernames or the specific website names. Instead of listing the name of the company/website that the password is for, name it something cryptic that you would understand it means, but no one else would.
 
aol

bad experience with aol. never could get them to let me quit using them. closed my account and even had new cr cards issued and they managed to get my new visa number and start charging me again. 6 month adventure with aol. sorry for your trouble. hadnt been online much but when i was i wondered what happened to you.
 
Thanks for posting this Russ!

It surely is an eye opener for anyone that is ever online. It is one of those situations where people assume... It will never happen to me. Well, unfortunately, yes, it can happen to you and you need to protect yourself from it.

A good firewall and a good anti virus/spyware program are a must! We have a local independent computer repair/support technician that we use. He is well educated, certified and local. Even the slightest sign of a problem, we call him to check it out. My wife and I travel a lot, and with two teenagers in the house, we have two desktops and two laptops, so we really do keep him busy at times.

I agree that using unique characters in your passwords are a good thing. Some sites only allow text and numbers, but on the sites that allow characters such as '?, !, . etc' , I use them!
 
Hacked

Good Information Russ, I just got back online after 2 weeks, lost sales, and $ 525.00 in repairs.
doug
 
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