topic Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY in Among Friends

A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:59:49 GMT

Well let me start by telling you that my debit card was hacked this past week. Luckily only one charge got through. I thought I would share what happened to me, just to make you all aware of these hackers.

I was doing a price check for a ladder. Everyone wanted close to $200.00 for it, except this one place that only wanted 73.00 for it. first alarm. I clicked on the site---Big mistake. I could see no shipping information or nothing. I started entering my debit card number to see what the final price would be. Suddenly I was knocked off the page. Never finished putting my numbers in.

I suddenly knew that something happened and it wasn't good, so the first thing I did was check my account. I had bought a ladder for 98.99 with a 2.00 charge to process the order.

First thing I did was change all passwords on everything. Thank God I did, because by Sunday they tried to send me a second ladder.

They had no email address, and their phone number was 12345678. I went back to the site and sent them a nasty note of course with no response, closed down my debit card also. I copied everything---their website , my letter to them etc. I reported them to the fraud dept also.

What I have found out:

They are from Shanghi, they hacked a wesite, that when you click on that website it routes you to them. Make sure you are dealing with a legitimate company when purchasing anything. Don't use your debit, use a credit card , unless it is some company that you trust.

Change your passwords at least once a month on your email. as well as any bank accounts you have used. Make sure the site is safe either by having a lock up at the address bar or a s after the http. I was shocked when I was told what happened. The bank will give me my money back, but it taught me a lesson. I refuse to buy anything again with a site that I am not familiar with. The holidays are bad for getting hacked. Be careful everyone!!!

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

GCR18 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 01:38:52 GMT

It is a good reminder.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

MarkeieMark — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 01:42:48 GMT

ITA a very good reminder. I forget the holidays bring this out also.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

Kachina624 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 02:02:15 GMT

@BalletBabe. Thanks for sharing your experience. I had a close call a couple years ago with a company that turned out to be in Hong Kong, buying some shoes. Fortunately, I used PayPal to pay for the purchase and they got my money back for me. Now I always use it on any foreign or otherwise shaky transaction.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

MJDinVegas — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 04:46:28 GMT

Thanks, @BalletBabe, for posting your experience. It’s frightening how much ahead of the technology the bad guys seem to be. Your advice is sound and I thank you!

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

dooBdoo — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 06:46:02 GMT

Thanks for taking the time and effort to share your experience, @BalletBabe. I'm sorry that happened to you. It's very thoughtful to let others know and it says a lot about you that you wanted to help make us all safer.

It's always a good idea to check and double-check the trustworthiness of a website before using it, and the extra time to do so is much less trouble than having to fix problems after the fact.

I want to add another caution: When browsing the internet, reading articles, even using social media and you see ads for products, services, or websites... if you're interested in the info in the ad do not click on the ad itself. Go back to the browser and find the official listing for the website, and then enter it that way. Some of those "sidebar" or popup ads are not secure nor are the links they use, and in some cases they're counterfeit copies of reputable sites.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

January121 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 08:08:31 GMT

Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

haddon9 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 08:19:16 GMT

@January121 wrote:
Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?

Curious about that too.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

SunValley — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 08:22:26 GMT

@dooBdoo @BalletBabe Thank you both for posting. I am to the point of not clicking on any Facebook ads or “quizzes.” They are too vulnerable to hackers and crooks; I have tight privacy on my account and have never filled out the “about me” information categories. I stopped using my debit card for online purchases at least 5 years ago.

I also immediately unsubscribe from any shopping marketing email list if it is a one-off purchase and my order has arrived. I was shocked to see that a recent email from a company that I bought some socks from at least 6 years ago actually used a group email, and I could see dozens of customers’ personal email addresses including mine. I contacted them immediately to remove me from their records.

The frustrating part is that the only security problem I’ve experienced was from the Experian hack, and I have never signed up for an account with them. The take away for me is that the genie is out of the bottle (i.e., dozens of financial, legal, government, and health care agencies have sensitive information posted on their servers that are beyond my control) and that seemingly harmless activity done today is the source for hackers tomorrow.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

LTT1 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 11:52:05 GMT

@BalletBabe @dooBdoo

Thank you so much for the reminder and the information! ✅

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

apple1964 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:16:33 GMT

@haddon9 wrote:
@January121 wrote:
Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?
Curious about that too.

Good catch I knew something was not right with this thread.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

chrystaltree — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:21:36 GMT

I never buy anything from unknow sites. Most people don't engage in such a risky practice now. It's an open invitation to hackers or thieves, which you found out. Not to mention that you don't know what you are really going to get from those unknow sites. I do all my online shopping with a debit card that is NOT linked to my bank account. So,even if something went south, a hacker could only get the money that is on the card.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:22:36 GMT

@SunValley wrote:
@dooBdoo @BalletBabe Thank you both for posting. I am to the point of not clicking on any Facebook ads or “quizzes.” They are too vulnerable to hackers and crooks; I have tight privacy on my account and have never filled out the “about me” information categories. I stopped using my debit card for online purchases at least 5 years ago.

I also immediately unsubscribe from any shopping marketing email list if it is a one-off purchase and my order has arrived. I was shocked to see that a recent email from a company that I bought some socks from at least 6 years ago actually used a group email, and I could see dozens of customers’ personal email addresses including mine. I contacted them immediately to remove me from their records.

The frustrating part is that the only security problem I’ve experienced was from the Experian hack, and I have never signed up for an account with them. The take away for me is that the genie is out of the bottle (i.e., dozens of financial, legal, government, and health care agencies have sensitive information posted on their servers that are beyond my control) and that seemingly harmless activity done today is the source for hackers tomorrow.

@SunValley You know I was watching a show last night about how these hackers can get into home security systems. The went to these families homes and showed them that the inside of their homes were being watched all over the internet. Talk about freaky. Shame what computers have done to us. It is getting to a point that you have to change your password everyday.

You are smart to never click on anything on face book. I like you have no personal information on face book. They keep bugging me for my cell and I also post nopictures up. I have pictures up of Ballernina's that I copied.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:24:24 GMT

@January121 wrote:
Just curious ... you mentioned that you started entering your debit card numbers in but, never finished & got knocked off ... if so, how did they get the rest of your information?

That is the question. They obviously got into my computer.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:27:16 GMT

There is nothing wrong with the thread. Do you think I have time to post a long post like this, if nothing happened???? I posted exactly what happened. In fact, I am on my way to the bank to fill out papers. Hackers can get into your computer and get all your information. Anything you ever typed in is on your hard drive.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:31:41 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
I never buy anything from unknow sites. Most people don't engage in such a risky practice now. It's an open invitation to hackers or thieves, which you found out. Not to mention that you don't know what you are really going to get from those unknow sites. I do all my online shopping with a debit card that is NOT linked to my bank account. So,even if something went south, a hacker could only get the money that is on the card.

@chrystaltree You are smart and I will from now on do the same thing. I had no idea I was on a site from Shangi.

I did find out from my internet provider that I am on a dynamic IP. I never heard of that either, but what they do is shuffle your ip address every so often. I got a new card and I am not using it for purchases anymore.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

Trinity11 — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:40:50 GMT

Sorry this happened to you. I think it also is a good warning to stop using debit cards for purchases.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

Q4u — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 16:48:55 GMT

@BalletBabe wrote:
There is nothing wrong with the thread. Do you think I have time to post a long post like this, if nothing happened???? I posted exactly what happened. In fact, I am on my way to the bank to fill out papers. Hackers can get into your computer and get all your information. Anything you ever typed in is on your hard drive.

There are also "back door" hackers who know exactly what you have by attaching "key loggers"... and they have everything you've ever typed, that's the scary one IMHO....

Someone upthread mentioned being seen/heard in your own home.... the reason I won't own an Alexa (or similar product) and my computer son is very careful what TVs he buys because of an integrated feature that can listen.... (and watch? I don't know that much about them)... and then there's our smart phones, LOL..... Paranoid yet??

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

Mindy D — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 23:47:16 GMT

I had something like this happen. After I put items in my cart and started to finalize my purchase a dummy company took over the transaction before I could even realize something was happening. I thought my iPad was acting strangely and I never finished putting in my credit card number or making the purchase. I can’t remember which legit company it was. I did report the incident to that company.

Re: A REMINDER ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY

BalletBabe — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 08:02:21 GMT

@Mindy D wrote:
I had something like this happen. After I put items in my cart and started to finalize my purchase a dummy company took over the transaction before I could even realize something was happening. I thought my iPad was acting strangely and I never finished putting in my credit card number or making the purchase. I can’t remember which legit company it was. I did report the incident to that company.

The company has not responded to the 8 emails I have sent. Actually , you cannot send an email, you have to go to their site and enter your email, but they never respond. I was told by my internet provider that, and they said don't go on the site at all. Glad you caught yours in time as well. Shame how this world is. Between the pain in the buttookski telemarketers, and hackers it is very disturbing.!! I tried to complain to the company but they will not respond. I believe it is a fake site.