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Old 2 Nov 2018, 04:11 PM   #16
xyzzy
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I try to answer questions on the att internet support forums. In the last two days there have been three posts of a similar scam. Oddly, I just answered one just before I came here and saw this thread. The poster said they were being asked for $871. Wonder where they came up with that number. The other two were, if I recall, around $900. This latest poster didn't go in to any details but I did reply to ask for the details.

I'm only mentioning this here just to inform that this scam is not limited to fastmail email addresses.
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 04:32 PM   #17
noclue
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Thanks, xyzzy. That is reassuring. I guess I thought FM was invincible, but a scam is a scam! I talked to my Mac lady, and she said to consider this a prank call, that I shouldn't worry about it. You have echoed her advice, so other than beefing up my passwords I think I'm going to do just that. I don't want to deal with a password manager. I do see the benefit of one, but I don't have the brain power to mess with it.

The $871 is what was in my email, too. I should have known that this was a hoax when the "author" insinuated that I'd been visiting "initimate" sites. I am a 72-year old female! . A fairly boring one at that...
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 04:41 PM   #18
FredOnline
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Well, it made me smile!

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/1...ackmail_video/
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 04:52 PM   #19
noclue
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I have to pass that one on, Fred! Thanks.
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 06:50 PM   #20
Terry
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noclue View Post
The password in that scam email was NOT my password. The only thing that was correct was my email address.
That's good at least it was nothing to do with Fastmail.
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 09:17 PM   #21
somdcomputerguy
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www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/26/blackmail_video/
What a great way to start a Friday! Thanks Fred.
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Old 2 Nov 2018, 11:37 PM   #22
jhollington
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xyzzy View Post
I try to answer questions on the att internet support forums. In the last two days there have been three posts of a similar scam. Oddly, I just answered one just before I came here and saw this thread. The poster said they were being asked for $871. Wonder where they came up with that number. The other two were, if I recall, around $900. This latest poster didn't go in to any details but I did reply to ask for the details.
Yeah, I've been seeing these e-mails in my spam folder for a few months now, so it's not even a new scam. The amounts and other details change slightly, but the premise is pretty much identical for every one of them.

That said, the inclusion of passwords does seem to be more recent. My father got caught up with one of those a few weeks ago — although it was an older password in his case —*and I've recently gotten one or two with a password in them as well, which I've been able to trace back to obscure sites that I haven't even logged into in almost ten years.

In short, as others have pointed out, these come from security breaches where hackers have gotten their hands on lists of users and passwords from various sites, from the huge ones at places like LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Adobe, to scores of much smaller sites.

You can visit https://haveibeenpwned.com to look up your e-mail address and see a list of any places where your password may have been compromised in a hack, and if you use a password manager like 1Password, it actually ties into this database directly and flags any passwords that you should change.
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 06:00 AM   #23
TenFour
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Supposedly my password was taken in a Dropbox breach and a LinkedIn breach a few years ago, but since I have been using unique passwords and storing them in password managers for many years I had little to worry about. I kept nothing much in Dropbox anyway, and only my profile in LinkedIn, with nothing I would consider private. IMHO a password manager is the only way to go for most of us. Try one out--they are really quite easy to use and worth it, though there are also many free versions. Probably the #1 thing to do for security if you don't already use one.
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 06:18 AM   #24
somdcomputerguy
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The email I received was To: an address I explicitly used for Dropbox, but the password in the email was for another web service that has been long (close to a decade) out of business, and I hadn't used that service for several years or so before that. Also of interest to me is that the password was in the wrong letter case (the password revealed was all lower case, where several of the letters were upper case in actuality) and several 'special characters', that were in the real password, were not in the spam email password..

- Bruce
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 06:30 AM   #25
somdcomputerguy
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Probably the #1 thing to do for security if you don't already use one.
I agree 100%. I also use my password manager, KeePass, as a 'bookmark holder' and only go to some sites using that manager which holds the unique, unmemorable password.

- Bruce
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 07:43 AM   #26
Folio
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For the truly dedicated user of password managers:

https://www.passwordstore.org/

There are even Firefox and Chrome extensions.
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 08:05 AM   #27
somdcomputerguy
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www.passwordstore.org
Interesting. I'm a fairly regular user of GPG as well. When I get some 'free' time, I just might 'toy' around with it. Honestly though, I'll most probably stick with KeePass, as I've been using for the better part of two decades and I'm very comfortable with and dedicated to it. Thanks for the link though.

- Bruce
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Old 3 Nov 2018, 09:08 AM   #28
Folio
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I'll most probably stick with KeePass...
Yes, as much as I like tinkering with pass, I actually use KeePassXC.
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Old 4 Nov 2018, 08:03 AM   #29
n5bb
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I agree that a password manager and unique passwords for each site is the best solutions. I use the SplashID password mangager on Windows, iOS, and their website. But there are many password manager solutions these days, including some included with operating systems and browsers.

As others have pointed out, it’s important to use a different random password at each site which needs a password. Most sites now use your email address as the username, so I use a unique Fastmail subdomain password for each site when I sign up. So if I get phishing spam sent to that unique address, I know that specific service had a security breach. That allowed me to discover a breach of my special email address at a bank and an IT services company. Only the unique email was exposed (not my password). If you use a single login name/email and password at all sites then if one is breached all are available to a scammer.

By far the most important service to keep secure is the email service where you receive notices and password reset messages from your online services. And, of course, your mobile phone, since many services send you login codes and reset messages via a mobile text message.

Scammers are very ingenious. Earlier today I received a scam phishing email (which Fastmail caught and placed in my Spam folder) which appeared to be from the widow of a friend who passed away 3 years ago. The From email address was fake and used the username of my old friend but the domain name of a company in Canada which is no longer in business and has no MX record so no incoming email server. I’m in the US. But the scammer probably didn’t know that — they just had a name to use in the signature and From field and a From domain which they could use with no difficulty. The message body consisted of a goo.gl shortened link to hide the actual URL (which was a PHP page on a server in Turkey). Don’t respond to suspect emails or click any links in them! I hate link shorteners, since they are used by scammers to hide their dangerous URL so you don’t know where you go when you click the link.

Bill
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