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New scammer activity to guess your email password

Mar 15, 2013 @ 15:17

It looks like a new for of scamming activity is emerging. Thousands of impoverished boys in internet cafes (probably in Africa) are spending their time trying to hack or guess your email password. Various tricks are also employed to try and get the user to reveal it, e.g. By filling in a web form.

if they crack your password they sit back and watch your email traffic without you realising what is going on. They are looking to build a picture of you, maybe to discover bank accounts, online poker or bingo accounts, or simply people who follow your instructions. Using the "forgot password" function of several popular sites they can access and take control of loads of things, EBay, Paypal, Amazon, Facebook etc.

i now know of 4 people who had their email hacked like this and only discovered it when the hacker attempted to steal money. 3 lost nothing, one had $14'000 stolen from his bank account. I dont yet know if the bank will refund him. He was in the habit of sending a scanned copy of his signed instructions to his bank, and the hacker just made a copy of one of those instructions, changing the beneficiary details. The bank did not call back the client to read back or double verify the instruction.

In each case i helped the email owner to use email headers to discover the true country of origin where the offending email was sent from. The countries were Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

My Advice:

1. Make sure your email password is different from all your other passwords, and too difficult to guess.

2. Assume a scammer may be reading all your email traffic. Is there anything valuable you don't want him to know, like the password to your Facebook account, or the details of your banker.

3. Be wary if you start getting things like password reminders that you didn't request, or replies from friends to emails that you never sent (e.g "out of office" replies).

4. If you lose your phone or mobile device, change your email password before you do anything else.

5. Don't allow your staff, clients, suppliers or financial intermediaries to act on your email instructions regarding money unless they verify the instruction by calling you.

The text you are quoting:

In each case i helped the email owner to use email headers to discover the true country of origin where the offending email was sent from. The countries were Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.

My Advice:

1. Make sure your email password is different from all your other passwords, and too difficult to guess.

2. Assume a scammer may be reading all your email traffic. Is there anything valuable you don't want him to know, like the password to your Facebook account, or the details of your banker.

3. Be wary if you start getting things like password reminders that you didn't request, or replies from friends to emails that you never sent (e.g "out of office" replies).

4. If you lose your phone or mobile device, change your email password before you do anything else.

5. Don't allow your staff, clients, suppliers or financial intermediaries to act on your email instructions regarding money unless they verify the instruction by calling you.

Marcus TMar 15, 2013 @ 15:17

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Re: New scammer activity to guess your email password

Post 1

Mar 15, 2013 @ 16:46

What you are describing is hardly a new scam, but it doesn't hurt reminding people.

Ideally you should have different passwords for everything. This is unrealistic unless you write the passwords down which doesn't really eliminate the risk but really only moves it.

Here's a practical way, using 3 password levels:

Level 1: Have a unique password for your e-mail account and for every website that knows your credit card details. Use a password that has nothing to do with you (i.e. people who know you can't guess it), and use numbers and capital letters.

Level 2: Have different passwords for the social networking platforms you use. If you can't remember them make them similar but vary them in a way that only you understand. For example use Ftry2guessthisB for Facebook and Ttry2guessthisR for twitter (not that the first and last letter of my password are the first and last of the platform but the rest is identical). Don't copy me, make up your own variant.

Level 3: For everything that you only access 1-2 times in your life, use another password.

Other things you want to do: check your computer regularly for spyware / keyloggers, don't log in on an unknown computer, and take care not to lose your laptop or phone.

The text you are quoting:

What you are describing is hardly a new scam, but it doesn't hurt reminding people.

Ideally you should have different passwords for everything. This is unrealistic unless you write the passwords down which doesn't really eliminate the risk but really only moves it.

Here's a practical way, using 3 password levels:

Level 3: For everything that you only access 1-2 times in your life, use another password.

Other things you want to do: check your computer regularly for spyware / keyloggers, don't log in on an unknown computer, and take care not to lose your laptop or phone.

Edward B, Mar 15, 2013 @ 16:46

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Re: New scammer activity to guess your email password

Post 2

Mar 15, 2013 @ 17:43

Your email is the key to your entire online life and for the most part is the place where forgotten passwords are sent. With the password, to many sites you can access "My Profile", which can lead to far more info like your address, Date of birth, credit card details, friends, and occupation.

I had a quick look through my online registrations and was surprised how many there are where i really need that password kept private because they hold my cash, credit card or investments, or can make financial commitments on my behalf: EBay, Paypal, iTunes, Amazon, Migros, LaPoste, Orange, ETrade, HMRC, plus at least 6 companies like banks, investment firms or gambling sites who hold some balance of my cash and where the relationship is 100% virtual-online, (like igindex).

Then there are many secondary sites that know alot about me, but don't hold my cash or credit card info. They hold things like my profile (private information), info on, or access to my friends and clients. Scammers could use the information in a bad way or could damage my reputation with friends. These are sites like MyYahoo, Facebook, Linked in, Glocals, Twitter, Myspace, MyGoogle, Flickr, Swiss.com, and so on.

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Marcus T, Mar 15, 2013 @ 17:43

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Re: New scammer activity to guess your email password

Post 3

Mar 16, 2013 @ 21:26

This is a new scam? It's the oldest one in the book. It's been around since the interenet was around

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This is a new scam? It's the oldest one in the book. It's been around since the interenet was around

Mark Spencer, Mar 16, 2013 @ 21:26

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Re: New scammer activity to guess your email password

Post 4

Mar 17, 2013 @ 17:50

By coincidence, I just received this SPAM email trying to steal email details:

From: [email protected]

Subject: Upgrade Your Account

Date: 16 March 2013 20:29:54 CET

Reply-To: [email protected]

IMPORTANT ALERT!!!

Your mailbox has almost exceeded its storage limit of 1 GB, defined by your webmail domain administrator. As such, some of your outgoing e-mails will not be delivered to their intended recipients. You also stand the risk of having some incoming e-mails bounced back.

We strongly advice that you re-validate your webmail account. This automatically provides more storage space and ensures the receipt and delivery of incoming and outgoing messages.

To re-validate your mailbox/webmail, Please follow the link below:

http://webmail-updating.com

Thank you!

Webmail system administrator!

WARNING! Protect your privacy. Logout when you are done and completely exit your browser.

The text you are quoting:

By coincidence, I just received this SPAM email trying to steal email details:

From: [email protected]

Subject: Upgrade Your Account

Date: 16 March 2013 20:29:54 CET

Reply-To: [email protected]

Marcus T, Mar 17, 2013 @ 17:50

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Re: New scammer activity to guess your email password

Post 5

Mar 17, 2013 @ 19:19

The most common scam taking place at this moment is probably the Microsoft tech support scam. It also happens in Switzerland; they tried it on my about a year ago (they called me on a land line).

Details:http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx

The text you are quoting:

The most common scam taking place at this moment is probably the Microsoft tech support scam. It also happens in Switzerland; they tried it on my about a year ago (they called me on a land line).

Details:http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/avoid-phone-scams.aspx

Edward B, Mar 17, 2013 @ 19:19

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