Someone's stolen my email account

[crewmeal]

I woke up this morning to find that someone has stolen my Yahoo and Gmail accounts. By using the alternative email address in Gmail I was able to reset my password and all is OK - for now. That someone has changed my personal details for Yahoo so I'm really in it now. I sent a message to them but all I got was an automated reply.

I do leave my laptop on standby all night and wonder if anyone could get in that way. I use AVG 8 and windows firewall to hopefully stop any hackers.

This is the 2nd time this has happened in 3 months. Any help would be gratefully accepted

[Spodman]

Erm, is this really you posting this?:confused:

[onetrack]

Unattended, running computers are a hackers delight .. download SpyZooka, the best anti-spyware program around, and see what's been lodged on your computer, while you were asleep .. :eek:

Once you've run the program, and deleted any trojans or spyware .. change your bank account passwords, too .. and keep a close track of your CC and bank accounts.
ID theft is the curse of the electronic age, and you need to be a lert. If you ain't a lert, you can turn into a dope .. and one that could end up trying to prove, that you are, who you say you are .. :eek:

DON'T get caught out, by dodgy anti-spyware, such as WinSpy .. WinSpy belongs to a bunch of Russian scammers, who rip you off and who then download MORE spyware, with WinSpy, than you ever had before .. :eek:

SpyZooka is the ONLY anti-spyware you can trust, and which guarantees 100% spyware and trojan removal .. in addition, they have won Tucows awards, and are also backed by the American Better Business Bureau.

[crewmeal]

Thanks onetrack you answers are much appreciated.

Yes it is really me posting this Spodman, working here in the Middle East and using a legit wifi connection is very vunruable

[Avtrician]

I wery much doubt that your computer has been hacked.

There are those out there that have aquired utilities to access others webmail accts, and then change passwords, may even have been one of you friends who some how knows your passwords.

[Tarq57]

There are bots around designed to attempt to crack passwords. Don't know much about the tech details, but the long and short of it is, use a complex, random password of at least 6 characters. There's all sorts of advice about how/why to do this all over the internerd. Plain, old fashioned manual attempts can sometimes yield results, too. I know of computers for which the password for certain protected functions is "password", or "administrator" etc

Other possibility. You have a keylogger on your own computer, or another computer from which you have at some time accessed these mail accounts.

onetrack I wouldn't touch Spyzooka with the pointy end of a metal tool. Apart from the fact its performance is rather average, there are other reasons (http://sunbeltblog.*************/2007/02/sleazy-antispyware-marketing.html) not (http://www.spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?p=147226#147226) to. (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=163960)

It's easy to find reputable security software. Try MBAM (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php), one of the current better ones. Superantispyware is also extremely good.

[vapilot2004]

These things can be sniffed from the wifi connection if your email browser logon session was not encrypted. Check for the lock icon when logging in.

A look at your browsing history may be informative. Also the computer logs would indicate when or if the PC was brought out of standby mode.

Right Click My Computer > Manage > Event Viewer


Good Luck!

[crewmeal]

Having further investigated things I now think my laptop was hacked by some creep in Nigeria, because in one of my gmail accounts the alternative email read [email protected]. Now do I reply insulting this person or leave well alone?

Regards spyware - here we go again!!! I just paid £24 for spyzooka and now there are comments that it's average. What is a good one? and what is safe to use?

As I downloaded google chrome I wonder if that has anything to do with snooping? I have deleted it and after recent events will consider reformating my 'C' drive again

[dbee]

A sensible option is to turn ANY PC, desk or lap - off at night. I still get a few odd hits, bot nothing as bad as yours!:confused: regards
dbee

[vapilot2004]

Having further investigated things I now think my laptop was hacked by some creep in Nigeria, because in one of my gmail accounts the alternative email read [email address]. Now do I reply insulting this person or leave well alone?

I would reply to that address with an offer for money in return for help in cashing a large cheque.

[Shunter]

Get hold of Spybot and AdAware. Both are free and very good. Don't go wasting money on stuff like SpyZooka.

My advice? Buy a Mac.

[Tarq57]

Regards spyware - here we go again!!! I just paid £24 for spyzooka and now there are comments that it's average. What is a good one? and what is safe to use?

Eric Howes (http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm) has kindly created this online resource of those that are unsavoury. It's a bit out of date, but still a valuable resource. A lot of the security blogs around the place are actually fairly out of date, and still reference applications (such as AdAware, or Ewido) that have long been superseded, fallen out of favour, or discontinued.
There are a few Malware removal guides around, that are kept reasonably up to date. The applications referenced within can be relied upon. Some of them (such as Combofix) need a bit of specialist knowledge to use safely. This factor (where relevant) is warned of in the guide. Here are two such guides: MajorGeeks (http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=139313), Piriform. (http://internetrotsyourbrain.com/rridgely/malwareremoval.htm) (The latter is from one of the forum mods at Ccleaner.)
Here (http://asap.maddoktor2.com/) is a page including a (by no means complete) list of forums that can be relied on. There are many others, such as Majorgeeks, Wilders, Castlecops...
And if you trust what I'm writing, Superantispyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html)and MBAM (http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php) are two state of the art spyware scanners. Both have free versions available. Both have pretty good forum support available for the free versions, a factor that should be looked for when judging the usefulness of a product. In fact, often a browse through a user forum can give a prospective user all the reassurance (or otherwise) needed.
[edit] Here's (http://andymanchesta.com/) another useful site, many tools easily referenced/indexed, and linked to their respective homepages. Seems to be regularly updated, too.

[onetrack]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with SpyZooka, it works just fine, and how much better than 100% spyware removal guarantee do you want?

You can argue until the cows come home about the merits of free programs, and other anti-spyware programs .. and it's the equivalent of starting a Ford/vs/GM argument, or a Boeing/vs/Airbus argument.

Each have their merits .. I paid my $$ and have an antispyware system that works .. and works well .. is regularly updated .. and which comes with a guarantee.

I note that the argument thread that Tarq57 linked, merely rages around a dubious advertising method, used by a SpyZooka affiliate .. and no-one has questioned SpyZookas ability or guarantee.

If we refused to buy a product because the company we wished to buy from, involved itself in some less-than-precisely-honest advertising .. we wouldn't be buying very much in this world .. :rolleyes:

[Tarq57]

When I see another forum member using language like SpyZooka is the ONLY anti-spyware you can trust, and which guarantees 100% spyware and trojan removal I get a bit dubious.
There are many trustworthy security products around, some paid for, some free.
Unless you've tried them all, I don't see how you can say that.