Sorry I havent been around much the last week or so, Ive been dealing with a serious invasion of my privacy

Last week both my hotmail accounts were hacked into and the passwords changed. From there the hacker contacted people in my friends list to try and get hold of my secret answer, and then changed the passwords. MSN finally reset the passwords, but he managed to get into them again, despite having Norton AntiVirus, Zone Alert, Ad-Aware, Spybot plus an additional firewall running on my PC.

Sadly he guessed correctly that my password might be the same on other accounts, and he hacked into my Star Wars Galaxies account. SWG is an online multiplayer game, you may have heard of it. Well he got into that and changed my password, and with control he can view my billing information (although wont see credit card details as it will be encrypted). Ive been contacting the publishers of the game for 2 days without reply, its true that customer relations are really slack when it comes to games.

Anyway, Ive had to change a lot of things, including usernames and passwords. None of them match anymore, and Ive had to try and figure out how he could get hold of my passwords. I cant find any trojans on my PC, and my only suspicion is my cookies, which I have resorted to deleting everytime one is created.

So far it looks as though none of my bank details or cards have been accessed or used. But it is certainly a scary thing to happen. I believe that I have a decent knowledge of keeping a PC safe, but this still managed to happen. Its unbelievable. Ive contacted the police, who put me through to a department in London, so I guess Ill see what happens.

Why do they bother? It looks as though they are just doing it for a laugh, just to muck me about. If when I get back into SWG (sometime today hopefully, wake up California!) he has deleted all my stuff, then I might be put off using the internet at all.

All I can say is that there are some mean-spirited people in this world on a power trip. Perhaps they harbor some displaced anger and decide on a less direct way to retaliate for perceived slights and offenses. They find it gratifying that they possess a skill that many others do not: to mess up other people's lives electronically.

I am sorry that they have disrupted this part of your life. Please bear in mind that while there are a lot of jerks in this world, there are still more of us who wouldn't dream of hurting someone else this way.

Hackers want to show that they can breach any type of security that a company throws at them. It's called "taking on a challenge". People love challenges. That's why many people do many things that they would normally see as beyond their abilities. Hackers do what they do for the same thing

Also, they try to find flaws in a company's software to make it look bad. Also. This can be seen as "industrial espionage".

What a hassle! I'm sorry to hear about your hacker problem.
Most of these guys are nerds, who do not have a life outside
of their computer worlds. They want to feel powerful and
clever, so they mess with other people's lives, via their
computers.

Question: Could it have been another player from the Star
Wars Galaxy site, who got into your system??

The bigger question is this: What in heaven's name is a grown man
doing, playing Star Wars games on-line, to begin with?

most hackers do things like this just for the hell of it. some do it because they're mad at someone or something, those these types tend to be worm and virus writers as well. so far, I've been lucky not to have any hackers mess with my stuff, perhaps my system is too easy to break into (only security is virus protection. I figure most hackers can get past many comercial firewalls any way (especially if over a year old) that and I have nothing to hack for!)



having fun. video games are great entertainment, and with the advent of the internet, one can play against REAL people rather then the computer. (tony hawk four for PS2 (which has a modem you can buy) is a good example of this) I think it's a generational thing.

There is a contest every year where hackers deface as many websites as possible for something.

Anyway, they also do it because they hate the company or because they want to spread their name on the net so they can initiate fear.

I assume you've contacted the fraud department of any network on which your password was compromised. If not, definitely do it. Servers keep enough logs that they should be able find what IPs have cracked into your accounts.

Unfortunately, there is no real way to know if someone actually cracked your password or not. When you submit your password to any website, they should immediately and irreversibly encrypt it. If they don't, it opens your password up to anyone with access to their network, hackers or employees. Since many people use the same passwords everywhere they go, when you get one you usually get them all.

Hopefully your new password is so strong that nobody can guess it. At least then you're safe from dictionary attacks.

I wouldn't let this turn you off to the internet, though. There are great things online, but there are bad things too. My LAN gets at least 5 attacks every single day. Without a few good firewalls, I'd be in bad shape.

About 8 months ago, Jaime and I had our checking account drained. Someone used it to sign up for AOL DSL. They never caught the guy, even though the DSL was registered to his home phone number and AOL had to dispatch a technician to his home to install the stupid thing!

Anyway, if you haven't yet-- change your password here: http://www.americasdebate.com/forums/index...=UserCP&CODE=28

Mike

Why in the world didn't they catch the person? By they I assume you mean the police. Didn't they just not care?

The guy got our checking account because the bank didn't accurately process our change of address, and sent a statement to our old apartment. One of the thousands of people who lived in the complex did it-- AOL confirmed that. The wouldn't give me an actual address, probably because they knew I'd go knock on his door...

The corrupt Savannah Police took my police report on a piece of notebook paper.

I included the AOL phone number, my AOL contact's name, as well as the fax number. All they police had to do was fax something on their letterhead, and they would have received a return fax with the guy's info.

I spoke with the head of the fraud department at the Savannah Police Department. He told me he'd get back to me in two days, but it never happened. I called a few times before deciding my messages weren't being returned.

Really, it took me about a week to find a police department that would even take the report. City passed me off to County passed me off to the Secret Service (their work must be really really secret) passed me back to the city passed me back to the county passed me back to the city where the loser lives passed me off to the bank, who told me they would participate in an investigation but wouldn't file a police report.

I told the bank that was great. I expressed my appreciation for their interest in securing my information and business. I then also expressed my interest in increasing my line of credit to $10,000, seeing as they have a policy of not pursuing bank fraud. For some strange reason they denied my request...

It was only about $150, and we did get it back from the bank, but I was amazed at the lack of response I received from those who vow to serve and protect.

Now, when I see a crime happening, I look the other way. The police won't investigate it; what is the point.

Mike

Well nothing seems to be getting done by the police here neither, Ive just been brushed aside. The same thing too! The regional police put me in touch with Metropolitan, who in turn informed me I was not from London (well done) and that I should contact the correct police. Bah.

Anyway Ive got all my accounts back, I hope. But Im still unsure as to how they were hacked in the first place. I no longer use hotmail for anything apart from signing into MSN Messenger.

One thing tho, when I got back into Star Wars last night, the contact address was changed. I have a ZIP and UK was changed to read US-WA. So does anyone stay in Washington state?

Yes I am a grown man but I love my video games And Star Wars too

Mike...that is insane. Take em to court

The reason why there is such a lack of response is because the laws are to vague. It think there is a minimum amount of fraud, $10k I think, before anyone will get involved. Each of the Agencys don't have juristriction over the internet so it's hard to get them to cooperate, especially if you live in one city and the hacker in another. There was an article in USAToday tech section a few months back about what to do, but it was mostly for identity theft.

Well just for a little FYI...
but in the computer world a hacker or hacking is actually a very positive term or compliment. The term they use for those who break into computers with malicious intent or to purposefully break them is crackers.

So in order to be PC in geek you are suppose to call these people crackers but that is not a very PC term in regards to race. Someone is always bound to get their feeling hurt.

I set my browser to disable all third-party cookies (disabling or prompting for first-party cookies essentially makes your browser useless). This prevents any 'tag-along' cookies from being placed on your computer. Also, it has the nice side benefit of eliminating the vast majority of pop-ups.