HOW DO I PROTECT MYSELF?

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

I would appreciate suggestions.

This morning I received an email from the reclusive brother of my lifelong friend. I was unable to open the message part, and unable to contact her and, fearing the worst, I replied to the email saying it was from me and giving him my iPhone number to call.

Later I was able to get her and she told me his computer had been hacked. Thanks for the warning, bro

I've turned off the iPhone and iPad, my daughter said she will come by after work and make sure they are updated, etc.

What do I do about my Dell desktop and stored information, anything?

Thanks for reading, any advice is appreciated.

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

Hi Noel,

Reclusive brother yet he tells her his computer has been hacked? Wondering why you would even try to open an email from a recluse of a friend.

Unless I know the person and a familiar email address, i do not open any of them. As far as your "i" things? I know nothing about the type of protection that are inclusive to that brand. For what they cost, i would hope they are protected as well as the android devices.

What exactly is your fear? Is it physical harm or concern about your electronic devices? As for your Dell. Delete the email if it shows up/run a deep scan and any other protection program you have on that computer. You also can do a "System Restore", back to a date prior to getting this email.

Hope you are doing better. Seems like i read you are typing with 1 finger, which is what i am doing now. Take care of yourself, and i really want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my wife and myself.

Best wishes to you from Cindy and myself.

hckynut(john)

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

Those types of messages are pretty common. I once got one from an eBay vendor with who I'd done business, certainly not a personal friend. It was about how he was in trouble in some foreign country and needed money. I immediately recognized it as a scam. His email account had been hacked.

I didn't do anything except ignore it. No damage done. It's pretty easy for crooks to get email addresses but unless someone responds, there nothing they can do with them.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

KingstonsMom · ‎03-09-2010

I agree with John, I'd run whatever virus protection software you use and I'd run an anti-malware program too (MalwareBytes is a good one, free on their website), if you don't currently use one.

I've had my email hacked a couple of times over the years and the worst thing that happened was myself and everyone on my contact list got spammed.

You definitely need to change your password for your email acct, if they hacked your email once you clicked on that email, they now have your current one.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@hckynut wrote:

Hi Noel,

Reclusive brother yet he tells her his computer has been hacked? Wondering why you would even try to open an email from a recluse of a friend.

Unless I know the person and a familiar email address, i do not open any of them. As far as your "i" things? I know nothing about the type of protection that are inclusive to that brand. For what they cost, i would hope they are protected as well as the android devices.

What exactly is your fear? Is it physical harm or concern about your electronic devices? As for your Dell. Delete the email if it shows up/run a deep scan and any other protection program you have on that computer. You also can do a "System Restore", back to a date prior to getting this email.

Hope you are doing better. Seems like i read you are typing with 1 finger, which is what i am doing now. Take care of yourself, and i really want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my wife and myself.

Best wishes to you from Cindy and myself.

**********************************

Hi John!

@hckynut

Re:

"Wondering why you would even try to open an email from a recluse of a friend."

******************

We have all known each other since childhood. I see him about once a year at holidays.

The brother and sister live in a rural area, not together though.

I called her, no answer, I feared the worst... that he was emailing (his real email address) me to tell me she had passed. That's why.

Thanks for responding! From what I have been told, I don't have to worry about the iPad and iPhone, but I don't know if that's a guarantee or not.

I'm concerned about the Dell laptop and access to accounts and credit card connections.

You are the expert here, not me

I'm glad to hear Cindy is better, I am still with the two of you in spirit. I wast hospitalized recently and have been having a lot of follow-up appointments and tests, but I'm working on getting better.

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@Kachina624

Thanks so much for responding, Kachina! I appreciate your easing my worries

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

IG, THANK YOU, TOO!

@KingstonsMom

My daughter just set up a new protection system for me. She and I can work on your suggestions tonight,

Again, thank you for the advice

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

Did you run scans with your antivirus and antimalware programs? That is definitely where I would start.

I can imagine why you opened it, so no need to chastise that!

You know, a weird thing that has happened a few times - I have gotten emails that appeared to be from my husband but by the subject line of the email I could tell that something was not right. I did open the first couple of times but then inside the email was another thing that said it couldn't open it and I needed to click on something to open it. Of course I didn't do that, got out of there, and ran scans. But to this day I have no idea how that happened.

I told him about it and that maybe he needs to run some scans and make sure everything is up to date. He's not as careful (paranoid?) as I am, plus he's not terribly adept at computer stuff, so I worry about that.

Hope everything comes out ok! Scary, eh?

LTT1 · ‎03-09-2010

@Noel7

My only experience has been when the email (in "junk") did look somewhat right.

I clicked to open it (from an entity that looked like PayPal i.e. Paypal no caps). When opened it asked me to log in from that page.

Since financial entities tell you that they will never do this (log in from a site that isn't theirs) instead I went to their website from Chrome.

My account was fine; no contact was needed,etc, but you already knew about this type of spam, I'm sure.

~Have a Kind Heart, Fierce Mind, Brave Spirit~

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@chickenbutt wrote:
Did you run scans with your antivirus and antimalware programs? That is definitely where I would start.

I can imagine why you opened it, so no need to chastise that!

You know, a weird thing that has happened a few times - I have gotten emails that appeared to be from my husband but by the subject line of the email I could tell that something was not right. I did open the first couple of times but then inside the email was another thing that said it couldn't open it and I needed to click on something to open it. Of course I didn't do that, got out of there, and ran scans. But to this day I have no idea how that happened.

I told him about it and that maybe he needs to run some scans and make sure everything is up to date. He's not as careful (paranoid?) as I am, plus he's not terribly adept at computer stuff, so I worry about that.

Hope everything comes out ok! Scary, eh?

*****************************

Hi @chickenbutt Thank you

As you know, these have been trying times for me: a lot of new medications, scary tests and a difficult recovery. For sure I do know not to open up odd emails, but I was so upset fearing the worst for my lifelong friend, I looked.