Preserved Topic: Totally Freaked Out Here

I signed onto MSN 5.0 today and my online name displayed my actual name, home address and said Drop By Sometime. Freaking me out bigtime it kept signing me out and saying "You are signed in at another location" I then got an earlier version of MSN and signed on under a different account. I saw that my name was "Blargh" which, when I signed on, I had changed it to something else. So, through my online name I was having this convo with this little wanker who was hacking me. One clue I have is when I asked who it was they said "Im you John, you kill me, you kill yourself" This being a line from a movie I made last year and have shown to a small group of people.

Is there a way of finding out who it is, how they did it and how I can stop it?

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

are they then a friend?

chances are you aren't "hacked" as much as they have just signed on as you, perhaps?

could you guess from the group who it could be?

could they have been in your house, and logged on from your pc (with no password required, perhaps)>



[This message has been edited by reitsma (edited 01-16-2003).]

They could be a friend. They didnt say anything unfriendly to me just stuffing around but still its the principal of the matter. Im still trying to guess as to who it could be but they would need my password to begin with, thats what Im annoyed about cos you know, the whole invasion of privacy thing.

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

fair enough.

did you tell them to stop it, and why you don't like it over msn?

i suppose a wise move to make now is to change your password for all your other accounts, just in case. Even changing one character should suffice to convince them that it's no use using that password on your other accounts - just in case they aren't a friend, or their a stupid friend.

Yeah Im planning to do that actually so it should solve the problem and save me getting any particular kind of software

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

As to how they did it, if they're a friend I can think of two very easy ways.

1.) Guess or watch as you type.

2.) Unobtrusively install a keylogger onto your machine.

In case 2, check to see if there are any strange processes running in the background. Unless he's very, very good, then you'd have to worry about TSR keyloggers.

"Keep your enemies close, keep your friends closer."

If you think it might be a friend who;s just gotten their hands on your password somehow, try changing your password and see if that works.

Maybe it really is you, Luxo_Jr. Perhaps you're a headcase! After all, this is the Asylum!

Perhaps so But I got an email tonight from myself saying Hi! Thanks for the file with all the passwords! That will help me lots!
Your Friendly neighbour HaXor. Mind you sent a basic pathetic reply back to myself saying What file?

Also when I click on links or go to certain web pages it comes up with this shitty search engine or some bloody ad site.

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

dude, that sounds REALLY weird! They may just be messing with you though. Strange that you got an email from yourself

Do you have any shared folders? I know that when you are online, those shared folders can be viewed. It's not really that difficult to do actually.

I get paranoid all the time that someone is hacking me. Might be old age I get all sorts of things on ZoneAlarm that says that my "Generic Host Process" is trying to connect somewhere else.

Keep us up to date.

Later,

C:\


~Binary is best~

Disconnect your computer whenever you want to go online!

Actually, disconnect your computer from the Internet. Backup your files to another hard disk, buy a removable hard drive, and install the hard disk into the rem. hard drive and install that drive into your computer. Whew!

Reformat your original hard disk. Reinstall your OS. Re-setup everything but change all of your passwords! And if there's anything having to do with sharing over the Internet, shut it off. (Remote Desktop Sharing, Keyloggers, FTP, HTTP, etc.)

You'll want to access all the sites (e-mail, www, etc.) that require passwords and change the passwords and retrieval e-mail addresses (in case the "hacker" changed the e-mail addresses to his, record his as well if he did). Access those sites from another computer not inside your home.

Install a firewall (Zonealarm Pro, BlackICE). Zonealarm Pro will allow you block ports and monitor connections. BlackICE will log all unauthorized and authorized attempts to intrude your computer. Do not use public shares. If you have folders that are shared across a network, put a password on them! Use an alphanumeric password. All of my passwords are completely numeric and they don't relate to anything like a birthdate. (e.g. 43657468)

If you don't want to go the extreme route, just install a few firewalls and a virus checker. Turn off all sharing. Change passwords from another computer. OR hire a professional network security administrator.

Yeah I have changed my password and nothing seems to be happening yet. Im actually thinking of changing it back to the original password because Ive found that this person only has access to my account, which really has nothing much in it, and just my MSN list. I know its a mate, so I want to find out who it is by, in a way, granting him to continue with this because I have a way of finding out who it is. Mind you, how do I trace an IP addy back to where it came from? Is it possible at all?

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

Why would you change your password back? That's like I saying I'll protect my top secret documents by shredding them but I think I'll paste them together again... :\

You obviously didn't read all of what he just wrote. I would report it to MSN and tell them your plan. Tell them that you won't be using that account and any access is this other person. They can track that access easier then you can I should think. There are places that you can do traces with...

is a Reverse DNS lookup link.

And this is a free IP lookup program that you can download.

I would suggest changing your passwords profiles on everything else that you log into. Just to be safe. As I said... contact MSN and let them know of the situation, if it's a leak in their software they need to know.

Hope this helps.

GrythusDraconis
I admire a man who can budget his life around his pint of Guinness and I envy a man who's wife will let him. ME, inspired by Suho1004 here.

check here...
http://visualroute.visualware.com/


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

I logged into my other account last night and found that had been hacked as well with bizarre emails and a group added to my list. This has the same password as my other account. I did try to change my password back to its original but it wouldnt let me and kept saying "cannot have your surname as your password" which it isnt! But from what happened to this other account, the one with bizarre emails Im pretty damn sure who it is now and Ill have a word to him as soon as he gets online, because I know this mate's style of humour. Ill keep you posted and thanks also for the links

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

Also while I am at it, Ive got that bloody Gator software on my computer and been using Ad-Aware to get rid of it. The only prob is it wont let me delete a few files saying they are write protected and stuff along those lines. What can I do to get rid of this cursid software?!

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

Awww don't ya love spyware .

techtv.com - How to get rid of gator

I'm sure there is more in-depth re-moving instructions some where to remove gator and all it's files, But if it was me a clean format and install of windows would do me.

COPEY

Nope didnt work for me. Its not listed in my control panel>>add\remove programs list. And Ad-Aware couldnt remove it cos it was write protected as I just said.

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

If you hit Alt+Ctrl_Del to bring up your Task Manager, you can see Gain.exe running under your processes. Click that, and hit "End Task" To shut it down. After that, you should be able to run Ad-Aware to remove Gator (aka, Gain).

HTH



I like Evil, yes I do! I like Evil, how 'bout you?

You might want to set up a fire wall, that way you can monitor all outgoing packets from your computer. You don't want some spy ware sending off all of your computer's secrets.

Quade: Thanks for that but I figured that out just last night once I found the name of the process and killed it with SHIFT>DELETE and Ad-Aware. All's Well Ends Well.

"You don't know how paralysing that is, that stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter: you can't do a thing." - Vincent Van Gogh

I've been following this thread, before you think of re-installing windows and all your other precious software,
try regcleaner to see/delete exactly whats on your registry entries, It comes very handy when you want to completely
get rid of all the lingering .dlls and other files, that remain when you uninstall some software.

regcleaner



[This message has been edited by kaboi (edited 01-21-2003).]

Creepy.