Need a favor

[okiemaggie]

Hey guys, I need a little help. Please send me a pm. It doesn't matter what you write in it. My email was hacked and somehow my incoming emails have been diverted. So now I have a new email acct and I want to know if it is working. I will get email notification of pm's (or at least I used to.)

Help a girl out...Thx, Maggie

 

[Powerman620]

Pm sent

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Sending pm

 

[pinkhamr]

PM Sent

 

[okiemaggie]

Thanks guys...All the pm notifications came through loud and clear. Maybe I'll actually start getting email again, although it's been nice to have no spam in my inbox. Hope whoever stole my address enjoyed my spam.

 

[NightShade]

More than likely whoever stole your e-mail address is actually using it to harvest addresses and send mail out rather than receive.

I know two people who were on yahoo that had their addresses compromised within a day or two of each other about a week ago. Received spam from each and contacted them via text to let them know their address had been hacked.

 

[okiemaggie]

Yes, that seems to fit the picture. I cannot delete my contacts at that address. I don't actually know how to shut it down. If you can instruct me, I'd be happy to pull their plug.

 

[vvvvvvv]

More than likely whoever stole your e-mail address is actually using it to harvest addresses and send mail out rather than receive.

I know two people who were on yahoo that had their addresses compromised within a day or two of each other about a week ago. Received spam from each and contacted them via text to let them know their address had been hacked.

FWIW, you don't have to have access to an account to send an email as another account. In fact, most email sent "from" another account never even touched the account. All you need is an open relay, and in many cases all you need to keep from getting filtered or dropped as spam is an rDNS record that matches an SPF record.


OP: Was it all emails, or just some that were going "missing"? And if they really were "diverted", what provider?


Of course, if people would actually use secure passphrases... the only issue they'd have is a random hash collision or a truly compromised provider... a lot faster to run a dictionary with common character substitutions than it is to look for a collision...

 

[NightShade]

Very true the output can be spoofed. . . but on the same light receiving an e-mail from someone you know means the account was likely compromised.

The problem with secure passphrases is duplication and remembering. If I have a unique passphrase for every account that would be difficult to compromise I would be unable to remember them. . . which is why I have a little something that helps me to do so. I remember one passphrase that encrypts a database with the rest of the accounts and passphrases. It's getting others to do it that is the problem. . . I have to wonder just how many people use GOD as their password even on this forum.

 

[okiemaggie]

Veggue Meat...I wish I was smart enough to understand what you said. It is a yahoo acct. I received an email with an attachment from a friend. But I never opened it because the message was just random letters.

I deleted the whole thing but after that I did not receive any email although I know that I should have been receiving 2-5/day. The folks who sent them wanted to know why I hadn't responded.

Changed passwords but no luck. When I log in there is an initial mail screen then a break like it's being diverted to a second screen. Today I tried to delete my contacts list but I can't. Windows is saying they are blocking content because of a certificate irregularity. All this is greek to this old gal. Is there something I should be doing to protect mtself?