Friday, July 29, 2011

Just finished watching Mao's Last Dancer. Excellent movie! Tearjerker. Highly recommended!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

a picture for you

London Email Hack Scam

Since my life is soooooo exciting!  Panic struck and I deleted my last account after my email got hacked by a bastard Nigerian.   Using my email, they wrote to all my contacts that I was in London, got bashed on the back of the neck, and needed money.   One of my alternate email addresses happened to be a "contact", so here is the email they sent:

Hi,

  Just writing to let you know our trip to London,England it has been a mess. We were having a great time until last night when we got mugged and lost all our cash,credit card cell phone.It has been a scary experience, I was hit at the back of my neck with a pistol. Anyway,I'm still alive and that's what's important. I'm financially strapped right now and need your help.

As we speak i need $1,500 to add up and sort my bills,don't worry i will def refund it as soon as we get home,the fastest and safest means you can get money to me is via western union,Here's my info:

Name: Kathleen F
Location:  19-20 Great Sutton St
London EC1V 0DR, UK

As soon as it is done, kindly get back to me with the confirmation number. Let me know when you are heading to the western union now
Kathy

 

Isn't that nice?  And then they not only changed my password, but changed my Password Recovery information.  When I was finally able to access my account, EVERYTHING had been deleted.  I thought all was good, until a friend told me that my email was still going to a "ymail" address instead of a "gmail" address!  Wtf??  So, I said to heck with it and deleted my account.  Yes, It was probably a bit unnecessary to do so, especially since I deleted my entire account, not just my gmail, and my entire account included a blog that I had had since 2004.   Que Sera.  

Here is a great webpage on how to Recover a Hacked or Compromised gmail account (that I of course found after the fact):

How to Recover a Hacked or Compromised Gmail Account

Before I deleted my account, the "Last Account Activity" had shown that my account was accessed several times from Nigeria.  Indeed, my friend responded to the plea, and the Nigerians actually wrote back something along the lines of "any luck with that wire transfer?"   Honestly, can you believe it?  Horrible!  I don't know what happened, but  I have since ran 5000 virus scans and changed ALL my passwords.  Let this be a lesson to you!