Email account hacked

[Winter_Lion]

I just went through a crappy experience. I was wondering if anyone else had this happen to them or knows how it was done.

Somebody managed to take over my email account and use it to spam horrible advertisements to everyone on my contact list.

I didn't even think that was possible. Wouldn"t they have to have your password and log in be able to use your contact list like that?

I turned all my security options in msn account settings to max privacy and changed my password. It didn't help. The only thing that worked was to delete my contact list.

All for naught. MSN determined that my account was being used for fraudulent transactions of some kind and suspended my email acct. They are no help whatsoever getting it turned back on of course.

I had the same email acct for 15 years.....all my website memberships have that as the acct. to send forgotten passwords to, so when i end up forgetting one and I will.....I am screwed......glum..

Winter

[sushi]

omg a digital nightmare. My best guess is your computer felt for some sort of a virus/worm ... whatever - that was able to track down your password and stuff.

Hope you are lucky and can manage to get MS to reanew your account.

[Winter_Lion]

omg a digital nightmare. My best guess is your computer felt for some sort of a virus/worm ... whatever - that was able to track down your password and stuff.

Hope you are lucky and can manage to get MS to reanew your account.

Thanks Sushi......yeah.......I am long due for a fresh operating system. That should get rid of any trojans hiding on me. 3 years on my present install of XP pro. They don't usually last that long. So i guess i was living on borrowed time as it were.
MSN says they will reactivate it if I supply them with all the details of my original application. That was back in 1997......even my memory isn't that good......lol.

I gave in and got myself another email acct. Hotmail......almost as good........hehe.

I hate hackers and anonymous criminals. I can't hit back.

Be Happy my brother

Winter

[.Sup]

my Gmail account was recently taken over. A link to God knows what was sent to 9 people on my contact list but luckily Google rejected it, suspecting it of spam. I checked the ips from which my email was accessed from and they were from Mexico and China. I changed password, secret question and disabled some advanced emailing options. I found no changes were made while the account was taken over but out of precaution I have created a new, separate email account for eBay and PayPal.
I suspect one of the torrent sites, which had my personal info containing my email address and password for that site which, foolishly of me, was the same as the password for my email, was hacked. I was too lazy to make separate passwords for each account and was actually very lucky that no harm was done but at the same time I got this alarm that things have to be changed.
I suggest you do something similar and create an email account for sites where you register and adds you wish to receive and another account for your friends and perhaps another one like me for finance.

[Winter_Lion]

Hi Sup

Good advice and much appreciated. You are right, laziness got me hacked. I used to use three accounts like you described and that worked well just more effort to check email and remember all the passwords. I started a new acct and created a high secure password for my financials and friends another for my site subs.

My first warning of my security breach was my mom and kids getting email from me for male sexual enhancement pills........omg. My pc based security is so good that at first I did not believe it was possible.

The use of a single password was the niche in my armor of course.........lesson relearned.

Thanks for the refresher course Sup. You are the man.

Winter

[Shrapnel]

I had this happen to me several years ago. I ended up striping all personal info from the account and using it as a spam box. I set-up a new email account with a different provider but I don't use that address to sign-up for anything except important stuff (finance and family mainly). I have a third email address I created using "anonimous" (fake) info and use that for suspect sites or sites prone to phishing (paypal, eBay, Amazon, etc).

I also have a general password that I use for low security stuff and seperate passwords for each of my financial sites and emails. I also have three work email addresses each with seperate passwords...and they each have to change every 90 days...and on different cycles. It gets to be a lot to remember so I use phrases and work in caps, lower case, numbers and special characters.

Another good idea I stole from work is to not have your log in and screen name (or email address) be the same thing, if you can help it. If they're the same then any one who uses the site or you give your email to is already half way into your account.

[Winter_Lion]

I had this happen to me several years ago. I ended up striping all personal info from the account and using it as a spam box. I set-up a new email account with a different provider but I don't use that address to sign-up for anything except important stuff (finance and family mainly). I have a third email address I created using "anonimous" (fake) info and use that for suspect sites or sites prone to phishing (paypal, eBay, Amazon, etc).

I also have a general password that I use for low security stuff and seperate passwords for each of my financial sites and emails. I also have three work email addresses each with seperate passwords...and they each have to change every 90 days...and on different cycles. It gets to be a lot to remember so I use phrases and work in caps, lower case, numbers and special characters.

Another good idea I stole from work is to not have your log in and screen name (or email address) be the same thing, if you can help it. If they're the same then any one who uses the site or you give your email to is already half way into your account.

Hello Shrapnel

Long time no see. Excellent tips.....everyone of them. Thank you mate.

Fortunately, I had just changed banks and none of my credit cards used online were open anymore. I less thing to worry about though.

Keep your powder dry bro

Winter

[Goggles]

Just another two quick tips:

www.bugmenot.com
This is a good place to check when you're registering for a site and really don't care about the signup stuff at all. For instance: the NY Times site sometimes requires you register to read a full article... instead of giving them your info, try checking BugMeNot for already-created login credentials.


www.makemetheking.com
For registering on sites that you really don't care about, and may never log into again. MakeMeTheKing provides free, open mailboxes. You can signup for a torrent site or whatever else and give them whatever email address you want @makemetheking.com (for instance: dont@makemetheking.com)... and then log into the mailbox to retrieve the activation email. Make sure you use some really random temporary password for that account, of course. Still, very useful!

[.Sup]

Very useful Goggles, thanks. I use a site called Passpack to store some of my passwords so I can access them from anywhere. Sounds risky especially if you read that Lastpass was hacked which basically offers identical features but has different safety measures. Passpack is also a great tool to make passwords. You can make securer or less secure passwords, depends on if you really want to save your password or make it a lengthier one and more secure but have to write it down.
I also screenshot all my passwords and store them on a USB key. That way I also keep track of the sites where I am registered. The usb key is then accessed from a separate computer (netbook) which is not connected to internet.