Sunday, August 19, 2012

Racing with the Hacker. Woman’s Instinct Will Never Let You Down

Hackers come like a theft in the night!

This time it almost succeeded because it visited during one of my most toxic day/night.  I just came home from work and doing my usual “email check time” which is after dinner and before bed time.  It’s one of those long tiring day that I gifted myself with a good dinner and the thought of resting my tired back on the soft bed is oh so inviting!

I came across this email.  I usually think twice before clicking this kind.  But maybe out of my tiredness and I think you would agree with me that this one looks legit right?

So I clicked on it and obediently followed the instruction.  But in just a matter of seconds a strong sound of “Teng!” came into my mind and then a strong thud in my chest. My instinct told me something is not right.  I “mouse over” the "From" (sender) and found that the address doesn’t match the sender (see red-encircled email address in the image).  Boom! I am being hacked! And the race begun!
 Screen shot of  the “yahoo email” sent to my main email address.
Note that the red-encircled yahoo address does not match the email sender (From).
 screen shot of hacked yahoo add

First thing I did was to CHANGE the password as QUICKLY as I can before the hacker access anything on my email address.  And I spent the whole evening doing a lot of clicking.  I apologize if I can not share here what were the exact preventive actions that I did because “Mr. Hacker” might just be around and reading this and he might know my secret tactics.  But you can message me privately if you’re interested to know.

For my fellow bloggers who, like me has several number of email address and web accounts that need to be protected.  The best thing that I can suggest is that once you know/feel that you are being hacked, change the passwords of all your accounts immediately.  And then, temporarily remove the connections between your email addresses and web accounts.  Even if it means that you need to spend overnight working on it like what happened to me.  Better be safe than sorry.


There are lots of anti-hacking tips that you can find online, but the most effective one is to change your "PASSWORD”.  Here are some of my personal tips.
  1. Change your passwords frequently.
  2. Choose a very unique pass word preferably something that has no relation to your personal information (birthday, etc).  Use a combination of alphanumeric, symbols, upper and lower case.
  3. Keep the password written somewhere else, not in your PC and most of all not in any of your web files.
  4. Use different email address for different purposes.
  5. Keep one or two email addresses very private that you should use for very important transactions only (eg. any transactions involving money).
Anybody wants to share your “hacker/hacking” experience?  I bet Mr. Hacker would love to read them Smile with tongue out.

27 comments:

  1. Plus, one way to tell if it's phishing is "typo" and "grammar" errors. Notice how the email said, "We apologies..." That should've rung the bell instantly ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep KM you're right. But maybe I was so tired and I wasn't been careful :(. This is the first time that I missed that out and just realized after I clicked on it. Anyway, thank God there wasn't any damage yet.

      Thanks for passing by. Fancy seeing you again hopping :)

      Delete
  2. Sa work ko, andaming customers ang nabibiktima ng ganyan.. basta if you receive anything that threatens that email will be removed or deleted lalo na kung free email like yahoo or gmail, magduda na agad. Tama, change pw at update ng security questions lang.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ang dami kasing masamang tao Juana. I regularly change my password na lang.

      Delete
  3. This is very important warning . Better be careful! Thanks for sharing:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Joy, let's be careful with these kind of people. You're welcome.

      Delete
  4. haha kaya ko tajot mgkiclick click eeh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. email add ko yan MEcoy eh. salbahe naman kasi etong mga hackers na to eh :(

      Delete
  5. Same as what I did that time na na-hack Yahoo account.. thumbs on this Balut!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oo ngapala Gracie, victim ka rin ng mga bad people na eto, haist let's pray for them na lang.
      THANKS po!

      Delete
  6. Nangyari na po sa akin na na hack ang email dahil diyan na sulat na akala ko sa yahoo talaga....at lahat na nasa email ko na mga email add ay pinadalhan ng iisang mensahe na nasa ibang bansa daw ako at kailangan ng pera....badtrip kasi lahat na nakasave doon na mga sinulat ko ay nawala lahat.........agad agad ay gumawa ako ng bagong email at copy paste ko bawat post sa blog ko.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nang ma hack ang email add ko dahil follow ko instruction na akala ko sa yahoo talaga ay pagka bukas nag text sa akin ang nag inspire sa akin sa pag blog na si Maria Cristina Falls na madami din napublish sa diaryo na kuwento ng "arvin, na hack ba ang email add mo?" ayun text ko di ko alam.....ng mag net me ay di ko na ma open ang yahoo account ko na 2002 pa iyon...nag text siya na na hack daw email add ko kasi nakareceive siya ng email mula sa akin na ganito ang nakasulat....2009 ng ma hack ang email ko dahil diyan sa katulad ng natanggap mo rin na email....ngayon kung may ganyan sa email ko ay follow din ako sa instruction pero ibang password binibigay ko.....



    Eto yun. Trojan yan na virus, na lahat ng saved addresses mo, mapapadalhan ng the same message. Hindi malayong mangyari kasi sa mga net cafes maraming keyloggers. At saka minsan nakakalimutan mo pa mag-logout. Pero yun mga sanay na sa ganyan, alam na nila na hindi naman yan totoong nanggaling sa friend nila.


    --- On Mon, 9/14/09, arvin de la pena wrote:

    From: arvin de la pena
    Subject: Am In Need Of Your Help
    To: arvin5618@yahoo.com
    Date: Monday, 14 September, 2009, 7:18 PM

    Am in a hurry writing you this note,Just wanted to seek your help on something very important, you are the only person i could reach at this point, and i hope you come to my aid. Because something very terrible is happening to me now,i need a favor from you now,I had a trip here in UK on a mission.

    Unfortunately for me all my money got stolen on my way to the hotel where i lodged along with my bag were my passport was ,And since then i have been without any money i am even owing the hotel here.

    So i have limited access to emails for now, please i need you to lend me about 1000Pounds so i can make arrangements and return back please,i have spoken to the embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively, I will return the money back to you as soon as i get home, I am so confused right now. I will be waiting to hear from you.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ganyan na message ang sa lahat na nasa email add ko napadalhan....pati sa email ko na isa na naroon din napadalhan din...napakadami...nahiya nga ako,hehe....arvin5618@yahoo.com iyon ang isa kong email add......ang na hack kong email ay arvs518@yahoo.com

    lahat talaga na email add na nasa arvs518@yahoo.com ay napadalhan ng ganun na message...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. THANK YOU so much for taking time sharing your "horror" story Arvin. Exactly nangyari yan sa batch mate namin a long time ago. Medyo nagkagulo ang batch namain kasi he was in Libya working during that time. And by the time that the hacked emails were circulating mostly to our batch mates, we were not hearing any news or updates from him. So medyo affected kami and we contacted another batch mate who was in Libya also to personally check on him. Then he immediately created another email add and spend a lot of tie emailing his contacts not to believe the hoax message.

      Ako, I don't open my email add to public places for safety purposes. Lagi lang sa secured places. So etong sakin may feeling akong sadya. But anyway, I'm being extra careful. And stay watchful too. Again thanks for sharing.

      Delete
  9. bigla tuloy ako naparanoid. gotta check my email accounts and change my passwords. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ha ha! better be paranoid and careful than not checking at all. Change your password from time to time.

      Welcome back bro! I mizz your kakulitan :)

      Delete
  10. naka-receive na ko ng ganun kay Arvs, hehe...

    by the way, can you please check THIS out?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. kawawa naman si Arvs...

      and I read your link, my prayers...

      Delete
  11. Good tips sis, my hubby's account was been hacked.His friends told us about all the email they received from his account, we resolved it and deleted the account and purchased and email account nah.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes it usually happens on free mail accounts. I'm thinking of using a paid email account. I think GoDaddy provided me one. But it's really a lot of work to transfer all the connections plus maintaining a paid email account is additional expense & I don't want to think what will happen it you will not pay anymore? :(

      Delete
  12. Dami talaga manloloko! Yung kwento ni Arvin dami nabiktima nyan! Yung kakilala ko naman ang hiningi sa kanya e cellphone load. Buti na lang naalarma sya agad kasi 25,000 worth na load ang hinihingi. Ang reason ng hacker e mabenta sa mga kasama nya at malaki tutubuin. I think mga 3k na load ang ang naibigay nya.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being hacked is a mess already but responding to the hacker's modus is a bigger mess. I'm just glad that I really did not reach that point. Careful careful tayo...

      Delete
  13. Replies
    1. Buti na nga lang McRich! Di na makakaulit sakin ang tinamanang lintik na hacker na yan lol

      Delete

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