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Little robbing bastards

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:42 pm
by Kwackerz
Someone just hacked my Amazon account. Luckily amazon.de noticed and cancelled it all and emailed me.
Phoned bank and yep.. 5 transactions for gift cards. Cancelled by Amazon, now cancelled by bank. Passwords @ amazon changed and payment details deleted.

Admittedly I do most things online so 1 problem in... many many transactions isnt too bad, but methinks I shall take it as a good nudge to review my security and change passwords at all my key locations.

Thats about 15 I need to change for starters...

:smt011

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:22 pm
by Aladinsaneuk
i use a program called 1password

i only use it on my macs - i.e. the iMac and the macbook - it is available in win doze btw

before it can be accessed, you have to put in a password - that can be nice and robust - it remembers all the others for me....

maybe an idea?

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:53 pm
by Kwackerz
Hmm would allow for super mega passwords to be used.. that i wouldnt be able to normally remember.. like #345supermegaarsefish56@:~OGGG

apologies if thats anyone's login password... :smt005

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:24 pm
by BikerGran
But what if someone hacks that - everything would go t!ts up!

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:31 pm
by Kwackerz
See thats where you have a backup backup plan...

Password keepers hold files (well some do) within them, so you need to remember the password to get on the pooter..
remember the password to open the password keeper..
remember the password to open the file which contains the passwords you need....


So if you have about 20 of those files created that hold the passwords you need, name them all the same but store them in different places.. like one in pics, one in my docs, one in programme files.... etc etc

all you have to do is remember which one has the real passwords in and which are dummies....

So if you remember all that lot, youre onto a winner and the hacker is none the wiser. well unless you didnt remember to add fake stuff into all those other files so that the size of the file doesnt give it away as to which one is the real one.... :smt002

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:29 am
by Willopotomas
I don't trust myself with my money let alone anyone else which is why I choose not to use banks or on-line services. I do however have top-up 'credit' card thing. It's good in a way that it allows me to buy things on-line and dabble with eBay, but it doesn't expose me to 'hackers' and the like.. All they can take is what's on it, which 99% of time is less than £1. Only top it up when it's needed. :smt002

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:22 pm
by Firestarter
I've got something similar, called Keypass - there's a portable version that's on my pen drive, and all my passwords are on there. Uses (IIRC) a reasonable level of encryption, and as hefty a password as you can remember to get in.

I fell for you Tim, my iTunes account got hacked some time back, credit card got hit for (I think) £270 on £10 gift cards. Would have been more, except the card company stopped after the 27th attempt (automatic), and thankfully because it goes through without the Securecode thingy that Mastercard uses, got my money back. Woke me up - had the same password for iTunes, email accounts, and other online accounts. In this world of online-everything, it gets flippin difficult to remember them all!

Thieving toe-rags...

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:25 pm
by Kwackerz
When I spoke to the bank, mine was visa, with the secure visa additional password thing on transactions. The bank said that the transactions can and do still go thru even if the password for that is incorrectly entered

Absolutely pathetic.

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:30 pm
by Aladinsaneuk
So

By their own admission, the security safe guards put in place, by the bank, are ignored, by the bank....


I would write to the bank, by recorded delivery, to ask them to confirm this.....

I would then find a good lawyer ....

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:42 pm
by Kwackerz
I'm going to look into it further, most definately.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:10 pm
by Firestarter
Kwackerz wrote:When I spoke to the bank, mine was visa, with the secure visa additional password thing on transactions. The bank said that the transactions can and do still go thru even if the password for that is incorrectly entered

Absolutely pathetic.
Yep, they do go through, but if the "Verified by Visa" thing wasn't used (which I doubt it will have been), you should get your money back (at least, that's what Egg Mastercard told me). I had to stand to the money until the investigation was complete, but it did get refunded because of that. Your credit card company should apply to the vendor to get it back, as it isn't covered by the Verified by.. guarentee

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:01 pm
by Kwackerz
The money came out last night as I was trying to pay for something on ebay.. couldnt get thru as customer service closed at 10pm so phoned at 8am on the dot. By 3 pm the bank's fraud team had squared it all away and repaid the money to my account.

:smt001

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:26 pm
by BikerGran
That's pretty impressive - what bank?

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:59 pm
by Kwackerz
HSBC :smt001
I was amazed too.. the Indian HSBC callcentre guy I spoke to was completely onside when I explained and was proper looking out for me, reassuring me and all that sort of good stuff..
I was due away on meetings all day so he organised to sort it all out for me, speak to the fraud team on my behalf as I was busy (knows my job) told me not to worry and they would phone me back when it was sorted.

Got the call a few minutes before 3pm from my customer service guy.
:smt003

I usually am amongst the first to slate banks, etc but they were seriously on the ball. Very pleased indeed.

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:03 pm
by mangocrazy
HSBC have also started using these 'random number generator' thingies to provide additional security. It means you need the RNG to access your account, but it certainly improves security. They send them out for free when you have a current account.