I Guess I've Been Hacked
#9
  Re: (...)
Tracie just called me and said she got a wierd email from me, so I guess I've been hacked. Don't know what to do about it, if there is except to warn folks. darn.
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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#10
  Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by cjs (Tracie just called ...)
First things first, change your email password.
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#11
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by DFen911 (First things first, ...)
Yeah. Especially if you use Yahoo email. People, there, are getting hacked all the time and then people in their address books start getting emails - supposedly from the account holder, saying "Help, I'm in _____ [foreign city], have been robbed and need you to send some money so I can get a replacement passport and airfare."

BEFORE you change your email password, however, examine your other email account settings, including "recovery questions" and other recovery options, such as secondary email addresses or cell-phone numbers. In some cases, the hackers change (or add to) these settings so that they receive notification when you change your password (and maybe even find out what the new one is).

As with ANY password, be sure NOT to use any information that may be easily obtainable. Don't use words that would be in any dictionary (even other languages). Don't use any names associated with you, your family, your friends, your employment, your location or your pets. Don't use birthdays, anniversaries, addresses, favourite books or movies or anything else that hackers either would be able to research about you or just run through lists of known words.

Since it's difficult for many people to remember passwords that don't fall into the above restrictions, you MAY use SOME of the above information IN COMBINATION with other, unrelated information, but try to make it as "unguessable" as possible. First of all, use at least one capital letter, at least one lower-case letter and one numeric digit (but not just adding "1" at the end - one of the first things done by too many people). Also, try to mix it up a bit - perhaps using two unrelated words an making an anagram phrase from them - just as long as the result is not just one or two dictionary words or a quote from a work of literature.

If you want maximum security and can accept having to write down a password that nobody could guess and almost nobody could remember, go to THIS page and pick a string of 10 or 12 characters from the third line of random characters. I suggest the third, since it's more varied than the first line and because some systems won't accept some of the special characters used in the second line. For example, I just went there, right now, and grabbed these ten characters from that third line: F3vknK7GYX. That kind of password is not likely to be hacked and, if it WERE, then it could mean that there was a Trojan or keylogger on a computer where you entered that password or that someone saw you type it or saw where you had written it.

One final thing: no matter what you choose to use, remember to change your passwords once in a while in order to minimise the possibility of unauthorised access.

Oops! One more thing: NEVER use the same password for more than one account, web site, etc. Otherwise, if hackers DO get a valid password of yours, they can sweep right through all the places where you use the same password.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
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#12
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by labradors (Yeah. Especially if...)
Change you email a nd Facebook passwords. Then just for good measure run your virus scan on your computer.
Erin
Mom to three wonderful 7th graders!
The time is flying by.
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#13
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by esgunn (Change you email a n...)
Last year something happened to my hotmail account and everyone on my contact list that started with a J got an email supposedly from me - including the school psychologist - talk about embarrassing!

I changed the password and ran a scan. Knock on wood nothing has happened since.
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#14
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by Trixxee (Last year something ...)
thanks everyone - I will go change passwords.
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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#15
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by cjs (thanks everyone - I ...)
I agree with all Labs said 100%. I would like to add one more suggestion. Use separate email addresses for family and banks etc. and tell anyone to whom you give the email to not use it to send you offers from websites, contest, etc. Then use another email for anyplace else that is commercial.

For example, I have one email that is only used by family, a few close friends, my bank for alerts, and my RX provider. That is also my original very first email address obtained with my first modem. I could get a second free so I have another that I use for all magazine subscriptions, all forums, and to purchase online. The first 2 are Earthlink accounts for which I pay less than $50.00 a year. To me they are worth it because they've never been hacked and I never get adds for Viagra, etc. on those accounts, and I can access them online if I wish.

I have a third that comes free with our DSL and is basically my throw away email that I use for "free" ad supported websites, to enter contests and anything I feel might generate spam. Some are legitimate businesses that just send out a lot of emails, most of which are useless. This is also the email address that is associated with Facebook.

I also have a old yahoo email address and it gets 100% junk, so I use it when for times I know I will never care if I get an email from them. I go in and do a mass delete without reading anything when I think about it. I also have a gmail account I had to get to get a free year of Shop Runner 2 day delivery service, but I never check it since I don't give it to any one. I have no contacts or addresses associated with either of these. Since I have all my contacts in my iPhone there is no need for me to have them in Yahoo or Google.

All have different user names and passwords. I can access all of them in Yahoo mail if I wish, Outlook and my main email app. Thunderbird.

FWIW, I've never been hacked, though DH who uses Yahoo as his mail app has.
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#16
  Re: Re: I Guess I've Been Hacked by Cubangirl (I agree with all Lab...)
The make the additional email addresses easier - especially for forum registrations, etc., I like a service called GishPuppy (named after a guide-dog puppy the developer trained).

Once you sign up for the free GishPuppy service and sign in, any time you need an email address to register for a site, you just "Gish it" and create an email address that gets associated with that site but that actually forwards to your real address. If you ever start to get unwanted email through that address, you can just go back to GishPuppy and revoke that address so that it will not accept any more email (nor forward anything to you). If you wish, you may then create another address for the site at which you had used the first one (remember to change it on the site). You may even set the address to expire, automatically, after a certain about of time.

The one drawback is that some website registrations are aware of GishPuppy's being a temporary-address service and may not allow GishPuppy addresses for registration. Fortunately, I have only encountered a few of those.

Give it a try. It has really helped me.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
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