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  1. #1

    are yahoo/hotmail accounts that easy to hack?

    hey guys


    my brother's (Leo) friend in Peru is having a bad online experience at the moment, she was surfing an online dating site and was then contacted by this guy, who to cut a long story short promised to set her up with some pop3 account and transfer her hotmail email through it to then be able to use outlook express, he asked for her password which she flatly denied. He got really angry and then went on saying how he could hack her accounts and get her passwords anyway, and would hack her bank accounts etc etc. He got her phone number from her whois records and started calling her. She's currently sitting at home with the phone off the hook worried to hell.

    To get to the point she got an email from him, at her yahoo address in which he provided her yahoo password, which was infact correct!!!!!

    so, is it that easy to hack into yahoo and hotmail accounts?

    My brother is currently getting her to report it all to yahoo, i believe he's also trying to get his IP to contact his isp about it.

    She had the phone off the hook all night, and the next morning put it back on, and within 15 minutes he had rung already!!!

    I would suggest going to the police to her!

  2. #2
    Personally I would contact the police, more for bugging her than for announcing he will hack.

    And I don't believe its very easy to hack an e-mail account, as long as her password is strong and she doesn't give it out.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,366
    Actually a lot of services use a security question in their "Forgot your password?" feature. I haven't used Yahoo in a while, so I don't know how it works, but the questions are usually very easy to answer if someone knows you (of if you give it out without realizing).
    - Matt

  4. #4
    my own hotmail account for some reason changed it's password (i may have set the expire option by accident) and after answering the reminder question it sent the password to my alternate email address that was already specified in the account, i wasn't given the option of what email it got sent to, i've never used it with yahoo so don't know if it is the same

    But, the fact is that he infact emailed her her actual password, which as far as i know was alphanumeric, but this i can't confirm. So he did hack the account and gain access to the password, or just used some sort of randomiser to guess the password if it turns out it was an easy password.

    Yup, i agree that the police should be contacted for the same reason.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    7,029
    Wow what scum this guy is. Tell her not everyone out there is a freak like him. As well for the email did you ask her if it was easy password? If so a randomiser or him guessing got him to it. Though with anything online you want to have a big hard password with numbers and letters.

    I hope this guy gets caught and has to face charges.


    Originally posted by aqi32
    my own hotmail account for some reason changed it's password (i may have set the expire option by accident) and after answering the reminder question it sent the password to my alternate email address that was already specified in the account, i wasn't given the option of what email it got sent to, i've never used it with yahoo so don't know if it is the same

    But, the fact is that he infact emailed her her actual password, which as far as i know was alphanumeric, but this i can't confirm. So he did hack the account and gain access to the password, or just used some sort of randomiser to guess the password if it turns out it was an easy password.

    Yup, i agree that the police should be contacted for the same reason.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Boise, ID U.S.A.
    Posts
    3,499
    Yahoo has also been the target of some phishing spam, If a dirtbag has your Yahoo email address in his list, it is possible you will be targeted for some kind of trick like that to get the password.

    Since this particular dirtbag has your friend's password, some things to do (besides your correct recommendation to notify police):
    1. If there is/are credit card(s) listed in Yahoo wallet, delete them. Watch account statements carefully for evidence of fraud.
    2. From a different account notify all contacts of a change of address, and also of a possible security problem with the old Yahoo address. When those have been notified, clean out the address book.
    3. Forward important saved emails to a new account. Check to see that they have arrived okay in the new account. If any are from the dirtbag, be sure that the option to display full headers is selected. Open the messages to be sure the headers are displayed. Forward as attachment. They may be needed later as evidence.
    When all important emails are forwarded, delete all messages in all the mailboxes. You might leave the incoming messages from the dirtbag, but do clean out the Sent mail box.
    4. If no new important incoming emails are expected, it might be a good idea to close the account. Hold off doing this if you need the account to confirm something like a change in Whois data, or a domain transfer. If you have a domain registered with Yahoo, it might be a good idea to transfer to another register, preferably one that offers privacy protection.

  7. #7
    yes that also came to mind Torith, it's the small crowd like this guy who give online contact a bad name!!

    i don't actually know her, i'm just going on what my brother has told me, who is so furious that he's about to jump on the next flight to peru, she apparently changed the password as soon as she received the email, she doesn't own any credit cards but i will tell my brother to follow those suggestions of removing all contacts if there are any.

  8. #8
    I would never give out the password, no matter what threw email, nore phone, i just wouldnt do that type of stuff, and im not that stupid, like i recieved an email:
    Security Measures

    Dear PayPal Customer,

    In accordance with our major database relocation, we are currently having major adjustments and updates of user accounts to verify that the informations you have provided with us during the sign-up process are true and correct. However, we have noticed some discrepancies regarding your account at PayPal. Possible causes are inaccurate contact information and invalid logaut process.

    We require you to complete verification procedure as part of our security measure.

    You must click the link to complete the process.
    Click here to confirm your account

    Please Note

    Unable to do so may result to abnormal account behavior during transactions. We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvinience.

    Sincerely,
    PayPal Account Review Department
    PayPal e-mail ID PD560
    Now the link they gave was:
    http://www.paypallk.com:680/paypal.php
    Which i know that thats not paypal, it just looks like it, dont fall for these scams people...!!!

  9. #9
    no that is a complete scam, jumps out a mile!!


    Leo has just told me that her password was infact fairly easy, so it is somewhat of a false alarm in that sense, but nonetheless this guy is still harrassing her and calling here constantly

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    1,596
    he guess her password...wow! usually we pick a password base on how it represent us. I hope she will have her phone number change and unlisted. Or better yet, have her invite the cops over to her house so that they can track his phone call and arrest him. I will tell you why...once he get the phone number, it is easy to get her addres.

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