Compromised account: evil people somehow get access to your Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail/Facebook account and use it to send messages/wall posts to people you know (who trust you).
A friend of mine was in the Swiss Alps on holiday in August. At an idyllic resort in the middle of nowhere he was delighted to find a free Internet terminal and logged into his Yahoo account to check his emails. Then he logged out.
A few minutes later everyone he’d ever emailed from his Yahoo account received this:
Email text:
Hey,
How is everything going on?
I just got my Ipad 2 on ——- Just amazing! With good quality, better service and much cheaper price, you’ll always find yours! Why not have a try? Just go!
Hope this may be helpful!
Regards
It seems there was some malware installed on the Internet terminal which logged my freind’s Yahoo usernname and password. His account was then used to send spam to lots of people. Once freinds started contacting him to ask about his “new iPad 2″ he changed his password and the spam stopped. None of the spam emails were left in his “sent items” – the spammers had cleaned their tracks.
We have heard lots of stories like this – and we are often called on to help friends whose accounts have been compromised. Now we’d like to hear your story so we can get a better picture of the how this happens, what the bad guys do with the accounts, and how people react. Of course we’ll publish the results as soon as we get a meaningful number of responses.
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