Hacked

[Eric Hardy]

I am sorry I have been absent so long from the forum but I have been deeply involved in getting my email and computer back on track after being hacked. My contacts all got emails, purporting to come from me, saying I was in Manilla with my family, got robbed, please send money etc. etc. - you get the drift  . I lost my email connection for several days, also my email folders and address book. I still have issues with my iPhone, iPad, and iMac which still have to be resolved  .  It was only with the help of a friend and lengthy talks on the help line (which my friend dealt with because I am too deaf to cope) that my email is now up and running. The other issues I will have to get help with. So there we are. Still more time to be spent 

Best wishes to all my forum friends

Eric H

[NightHawk]

WOW 

I thought it was unusual not to have heard from you on the Forum for so long Eric, as you're one of our most loyal and prolific contributors.  I thought your absence was due to illness, never expecting this to be the reason.

Obviously, you'll need to investigate how you got hacked - e.g. opening a seemingly innocent email containing a malicious attachment (which is one of the most common occurrences) or getting onto a malicious website by a redirection maybe.

Has this just affected your new Apple Mac or your Windows PC as well?  If it was just your Mac, has there been a virus lurking on there when you acquired it that had otherwise gone undetected, and was then recently activated.

All possibilities to look into.  Let's hope you soon get safely fully up and running again.

Sick minds like this, using fake family crisis to get money from people you know, causing undue worry and concern to your family and friends, is just despicable.

If you need any help or advice getting sorted out Eric, you just have to ask.

[Eric Hardy]

I think I know how I got hacked, Laurie. I have been receiving a series of very convincing emails from Bt Yahoo saying Bt and Yahoo were separating and emails would be accessible from the BT site rather than Yahoo from the 17th September. This has been going on for ages. A few days ago there was another email looking all the world like an official BT email saying if I wished to retain my email address click here, which I foolishly did. I have since spoken to my neighbour who has also a Bt Yahoo email account and he has had no such notifications. I think I was a victim of a very convincing scam.

My Windows & laptop has not been infected, nor was my iMac.

The iMac, iPad, iPhone issues are entirely of my own making and created by my own ignorance. My Apple accounts were linked to btinternet.com and as they were down I managed to create a gmail account. I tried to change the link for my Apple ID from btinternet.com to gmail.com but instead managed to create a new Apple account with a new ID. Now anything to do with my Apple accounts and iCloud won't recognise any of my passwords and I am stumped. I can't even use FaceTime which we use regularly to talk to our son in Canada. Grrrrrrr 

So a little more time required. There is an Apple consultant in the village so I might have to pay him to sort me out.

Eric H

[NightHawk]

Unfortunately Eric, these low-lifes do set up very elaborate looking emails, and websites, to get people to visit and click on specific links that infect your computer with viruses and malware.

They are so convincing that they do catch out some people.  I know you are now going to be very much more vigilant (and suspicious) of any future emails you receive.

I would suggest that if you do receive any more emails purporting to come from companies who you do normally deal with, and they are asking for sensitive account  information from you or to click on links they provide, DO NOT do it.  Instead, contact the company by telephone (or email) and query if they are in fact requesting the information or altering your particular account.  If not, then they would normally like to see the scam email/s you have received so that they can investigate.  Once you've forwarded the scam emails, delete them from your computer so that you don't accidentally open them in the future and click on the bad links.

I've had a few emails in the past purporting to come from PayPal requesting account information.  Bad grammar in these emails are usually a good clue as to the suspicious nature of them, but I never open any attachments, click on links or provide any information to these.  I forward them immediately to a 'phishing' email address at PayPal for their information and attention.  They always reply confirming the email was a scam and they would look into it. 

Banks are another favourite target for scammers.  They'll send out convincing emails saying they are updating their customer records and your information appears to be out of date and needs to be confirmed.  Again, just forward the email to your bank and let them follow it up.

Genuine companies will never email their customers asking for personal information to be supplied, so the rule of thumb is never to provide this information.

Anyway, good luck with your Apple consultant.

[Eric Hardy]

I am usually very vigilant, Laurie. For some reason my guard dropped. That will teach me a lesson.

Eric H

[ideasguy]

I am very sorry to read all this Eric.
They obviously got hold of your email contact list and spammed out from there - probably a Trojan virus.
I also received one of those emails purporting to be from a distressed guy in Manilla (i.e. you!) as I am obviously on your contact list.
I then checked and noticed that you had been on the forum, so it obviously was not genuine.
I sent you an email enquiring if you were OK (but not referring to the email in case it alarmed you).
I didn't get a reply, and now I know why 
You were on the forum again so I let it go.

I sincerely hope they didn't get access to any sensitive financial details!
I also hope no one sent "you" money, as requested!

Laurie has given you (and other forum members) some sound and wise advice.

I get frequent phishing emails from "paypal".
I received them years before I even had an account with them, so Ive always been wary.
I also get phising email from Banks which I don't have accounts with.
I can understand how easy it would be to accidentally open and click a link.

As Laurie says - Don't ever click. Instead use your normal method to access your Paypal or any other account.

Good luck Eric. Reading about "the aftermath" I can see this is a very difficult situation which would be a major challenge for any computer expert.

[Eric Hardy]

Yesterday, I came to a decision, to stop fiddling around with my Mac devices and get on with the more important things in life. I feel much happier for it 
After sitting on a chair and weeding round the tomatoes in the green house Anthea and I sat on garden chairs in the sunshine with a preserving pan between us and chopping boards on our knees. She peeled and chopped Bramley windfalls and I peeled and chopped onions (much better in the open air). Now there is a panful of apple chutney waiting to be put into pots after breakfast. Much Much pleasanter than computer fiddling 

THe devices all do what they are meant to do.  THe only downside is we can't speak to Mark in Canada on Face Time, and the devices don't synchronise. Maybe try again later, but not now.

[NightHawk]

You're adopting a very positive attitude there Eric.  I commend you for being so resilient.

It's a real shame that you've still not got all your devices working correctly yet but, as you say, you're prioritising your life and not letting your devices rule you.

You'll get sorted out eventually, but in your own time 

[ideasguy]

You are champions Eric - a great and winning team!
Nice to read about you and Anthea dealing with the garden produce!
I hope it clears your head so you can tackle the computer issues with a fresh zeal.

I read your posting out to Mary and she has took the bait
I've been gathering Bramley windfalls for a few weeks now (the best quality we've had for years) and have been drying out my Onions in the greenhouse.
Mary would like to know your recipe for Apple chutney
If you have time, please raise a new Topic so as not to distract from this thread.

[Eric Hardy]

Mary would like to know your recipe for Apple chutney
If you have time, please raise a new Topic so as not to distract from this thread.

I will do just that George, but our cooking isn't a very exact science 

Eric H

[Eric Hardy]

I know you are now going to be very much more vigilant (and suspicious) of any future emails you receive.
.............................................................
Anyway, good luck with your Apple consultant.

An update. It took a long time, but everything is up and running again perfectly.  A friend of mine spent hours talking to help lines  to get my btinternet email restored, but he succeeded. The Apple consultant came up trumps and managed restore my Apple ID and iCloud connections. It took him more than 5 hours and several talks to the Apple help line but he managed it in the end. He only charged £69 which I thought very reasonable. Try getting a plumber to work for over 5 hours for that amount!
I had to resort to help for these help line calls because I am so deaf I can't hear what is said. In the past Anthea has spoken to help lines but then relaying what was said to me doesn't really work.

Yes Laurie, I will certainly be more vigilant and suspicious of any email that requires you to click on something in the future

Eric H

[NightHawk]

That was a VERY reasonable price for all that work Eric, and I think you got the problem sorted out in the best way possible under the circumstances.

Great to hear you're finally fully up and running again 

It's so easy to get caught out by these 'low-lifes' who have nothing better to do than to infect computers of people they don't know, and they can't see the result of their crimes anyway.  Such sick minded people that the world would be better off without   

I've had a spate of emails recently purporting to come from UPS, saying parcels could not be delivered to my address for various reasons with an attachment to open to provide details for further delivery.  I've had these in the past, including FED EX scams on the same theme.  They just get deleted.  Apart from not expecting any such deliveries anyway, if you hover your mouse over any of the links in these emails you can see that it does not point to the companies' websites they're supposedly representing.  (If you do this, remember to keep your fingers well away from the mouse buttons so you don't accidentally click the link.)
Probably best not to do anything other than delete the emails completely.

So keep an eye out for those Eric, they seem to be doing the rounds again.

[Eric Hardy]

I've had a spate of emails recently purporting to come from UPS, saying parcels could not be delivered to my address for various reasons with an attachment to open to provide details for further delivery.  I've had these in the past, including FED EX scams on the same theme.  They just get deleted.  Apart from not expecting any such deliveries anyway, if you hover your mouse over any of the links in these emails you can see that it does not point to the companies' websites they're supposedly representing.  (If you do this, remember to keep your fingers well away from the mouse buttons so you don't accidentally click the link.)
Probably best not to do anything other than delete the emails completely.
So keep an eye out for those Eric, they seem to be doing the rounds again.

Thanks Laurie, I have had those "unable to deliver a parcel" ones too. I also do all my banking at Nationwide and they say they will NEVER email apart from each month I get one telling me that my statement is ready to view. I think I have had emails purporting to come from every Bank there is in the UK. They all report problems to my (non existing) account and ask me to click something or other to rectify the problem. They do go straight in the trash.

The one that caught me was a very clever one. For weeks I was getting very convincing emails looking all the world like an official BT announcement saying on the 17th September, btinternet would no longer be using the BT Yahoo website and that to log in I would have to log in to the BT home site, they even gave details on how to do it. I know other people were taken in because there was a lot of online chatter wondering what the situation would be with Flickr once BT was no longer linked to Yahoo, the point being that having a BT Yahoo account Pro membership of Flickr is free. I wonder how many of them got hacked? The early emails were just a softening up process. I got the final one saying if I wished to retain my present email address click "here", which I stupidly did. That did the trick, I was hacked.

Everything has now been checked for viruses and other malware and I now have a clean bill of health.

The lesson has most definitely been learned the hard way 

Eric H