Computer with a mind of its own

Discussion in 'privacy problems' started by Dawn's Web Designs, Sep 1, 2006.

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  1. Dawn's Web Designs

    Dawn's Web Designs Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2006
    Posts:
    4
    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    I've had some type of forum up for around 2 years. By my second or third one I'd pissed some peeps off...even got a death threat on one old board I had. But for a couple of years...I really think someone's followed me around the web.

    I still don't understand how "robots" can know the second you start a forum. I've created some & never told nobody about the URLs yet I have almost immediate guests. And everytime I login...there they are again. And they just sit there almost the whole time I'm on. If they're robots...why aren't there a bunch of 'em? Is there one robot in the world that hangs out on everybody's forum at the same time? o_O

    And I would think it just a robot...if it didn't try to interact with me. I have no spam/no links to porno on ALL my forums. So eventually I started getting someone(s) who would sign up long enough to post a link to spam or porno on their profile then disappear...they never posted anything but these links in their profiles.

    I would've blown it off again had it not followed me over to my blog too. Suddenly there's comments posted that aren't comments at all...simply more links to spam or porno. The comments never made it through moderation but it's still harrassing me.

    So I deleted my blog. And now I've got forum software where you have to activate your account & until you do you can't post bogus links in your profile. If peeps don't activate I assume their emails bogus & ban/delete them. But they still try/harrass me anyways.

    And lately I've been getting emails. One guy wanted me to build him a porno site. One gal wanted me to build her an adult site. I'm a crime victim several times over...more porn is the last thing we need. And just the other day I got an email asking me to teach the mailer everything I know (likely for free) cuz they're having trouble/have been shot in the head. :doubt:

    Today I was working on my forums...as usual...when suddenly my pages started scrolling around all by themselves. I'd try to scroll back up/read & it'd go right back down again. I went to the start menu & it started doing it there too. I went into control panel & tried to click on various files but it chose it's own & went in. About the time I came in here it quit as quickly as it started. So I'm either possessed/haunted or hacked.

    Not long ago I was informed by AVG I had the java byte verify virus. It moves the virus to a vault but don't kill it/fix whatever it's done. I read in here to download zone alarm (among other things). But the free version of zone alarm is simply firewall protection. I have that with Windows XP. Plus I tried to download it & my computer wouldn't even go into Windows XP. I had to go in safe mode & uninstall zone alarm to get back in.

    What's going on here/what can I do? o_O
     
  2. Climenole

    Climenole Look 'n' Stop Expert

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2005
    Posts:
    1,637
    HI Dawn's Web Designs :)


    Because, Madam, you'll leave your tracks all around the Web and help spammers and alike to track you...
    The spammers used "Bots" or Robot programs to scan web pages and find strings with an arobas ( @ )
    which is the sign of and email address. Even they collect many false email addresses, they don't care.
    By this way they build list of "clients" to spam and/or sell these lists to others spammers and so on...

    The easiest way to know if your email address will be detected by spammers is to search your email
    address with Google. If you find it, be sure the spammers had found it too...

    An other way to be harrassed by malicious poeples and other jerks is to spread your Instant Messaging
    ID...

    An other way to be spammed is to be included in a contact list of somebody. If the contact address is
    theft by spywares and alike you'll be spammed. Most of the time the problem comes with .wab files:
    the ones used by Outlook Express...

    And so on...

    The proof you leave your tracks all around the web is I found some of them in less than 30 seconds...

    Search with Google:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=info...&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official


    A screen capture of the code of your Web site. Your email address is there in clear (in text format).

    See the screen capture join with this post...

    Avoid this by using a picture of this address not by leaving the text format...!!!

    ALSO :
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    So you're a "38 eight year's old divorced women with a daughter and so on..." :rolleyes:

    (You give THIS personnal info to everybodies in your web site. How are you expecting to protect your privacy by doing this o_O You don't know that crackpots are looking for that kind of informationo_O ) !!!

    With a person like you, Madame, the "spy" and crackpots have a very easy job... :rolleyes:
    Don't do this please. (to protect you ... and your daughter!)

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To avoid spam:

    a) Don't give your email address to everybodies (including web sites...)
    Don't leave your email address in clear in forums or web site or user groups...
    In your web site you may used a picture of your email such as this one:
    http://static.flickr.com/68/201445586_f7decf1fb5_o.png

    b) use a 3 layer of protection for your email address:
    (pop3 or Gmail)

    1- one for the poeple you know personnaly

    2- one for professionnal or social purpose

    3- a third one for the others: a "garbage email" such as

    http://spambox.us/ (http://spambox.us/)
    http://www.jetable.org/en/index
    http://www.spamgourmet.com/
    etc.
    Avoid web mail like Hotmail or Yahoo. Prefer Gmail ...
    (they have a good spam filter...)

    c) Use a mail client with a spam filter such as Mozilla Thunderbird
    which can be combined with a good anti-spam such as:
    K9
    http://keir.net/k9.html
    SpamPal
    http://www.spampal.org/
    Spamihilator
    http://www.spamihilator.com/

    3- Don't spread your instant messaging ID to everybody
    and don't leave personnal info in your public profile

    4- Don't used Outlook Express: this program is often the target of spyware and alike.

    5- Don't send mail with CC (Carbon Copy) but BCC (Blank Carbon Copy)
    and ask your contact to do the same things or put them on your blacklist...

    6- Never answer or bounce spam.

    7- Protect your privacy with

    a) an updated anti-virus with "On Access" protection enabled.
    b) a set of anti-spywares updated and used it on regular basis (weekly)
    c) avoid Internet Explorer, an infinite source of problems and prefer
    alternate browser such as Firefox or Opera.
    With Firefox these extensions increase the safety and privacy:
    - Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.4 - filtersetg@updater: http://www.pierceive.com/
    - Adblock Plus 0.7.1.2 - {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}: http://adblockplus.org/
    - Add N Edit Cookies 0.2.1.0 - {bb6bc1bb-f824-4702-90cd-35e2fb24f25c}: http://addneditcookies.mozdev.org/
    - McAfee SiteAdvisor 23.0 - {1650a312-02bc-40ee-977e-83f158701739}: http://www.siteadvisor.com/
    - NoScript 1.1.4.1 - {73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}: http://noscript.net
    - Redirect Remover 1.1 - {fe0258ab-4f74-43a1-8781-bcdf340f9ee9}: http://xeen.reversestudios.com/?page=rdr
    - RefControl 0.8.7 - {455D905A-D37C-4643-A9E2-F6FEFAA0424A}: http://www.stardrifter.org/refcontrol/
    - ShowIP 0.8.03 - {3e9bb2a7-62ca-4efa-a4e6-f6f6168a652d}: http://l4x.org/showip
    d) always have your firewall enable
    You may complete your fiewall protection with System Safety Monitor (free edition)
    (With the half firewall of XP it's almost mandatory...)

    e) Practice the "Safe-Hex":
    http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html
     

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    Last edited: Sep 1, 2006
  3. JinxGenius

    JinxGenius Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    Posts:
    13
    Location:
    Internet
    From the last part I saw, I'd say......

    You are Trojaned


    but it's pretty much comes from those blood-sucking info-leaking bots that makes you the target.


    Think twice before you do anything, what's the immediate affect and defect? and what the worst could happen if "security" goes wrong?
     
  4. Dawn's Web Designs

    Dawn's Web Designs Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2006
    Posts:
    4
    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    I was trojaned & then some. :eek:

    By the way...milk...it doesn't do a laptop good. :doubt:

    And to the first person who replied to this message...do you always treat peeps like they're stupid? I leave my tracks all over the place cuz I'm trying to advertise/run a home biz. You ask me why I give out personal info? I'm 38/divorced/sick & have an almost grown kid. Big deal/who cares? That's not very personal info. You don't know my real name/address/phone number/bank account info/etc.

    Don't get me wrong...I appreciate what you tried to do...but you could find a better way to do it. :-*
     
  5. malformed

    malformed Former Poster

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    Posts:
    124
    Location:
    In the Shadows
    Unbelieveable, Someone takes the time to respond to you, trying to help you with some advice and you respond, like that :rolleyes: Nice :(

    You must be here; just to post, to silently spam in links in your signature. You must think we're all new. :rolleyes:

    Malformed
     
  6. Cochise

    Cochise A missed friend

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2003
    Posts:
    2,549
    Location:
    North Thoresby Lincs Good Olde England
    Your first Post seemed like you were asking for help but you didn't give the whole story did you?..........If your giving out all your personal info left right and centre what do you expect....your going to drag in all the Neanderthals from near and wide.........

    Climenole offered you damn good advice but it was obviously not what you wanted to hear..........I don't suppose for a minute Climenole assumed you were stupid..........You asked, and you got.......if you know better then do it..

    And I would think an apology wouldn't go amiss either....The good people here only try to help.......


    Cochise.





    Cochise.
     
  7. Uguel707

    Uguel707 Graphic Artist

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2002
    Posts:
    2,999
    Location:
    San Diego
    @ Dawn's Web Designs

    Climenole took a lot of time and effort to write a very informative post that I am sure many of us will take as a reference when starting a website. He certainly meant no harm by giving you such good advise and frankly he did it the best he could considering the info you gave him and only because you, a stranger to him, asked for help.
     
  8. JinxGenius

    JinxGenius Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2006
    Posts:
    13
    Location:
    Internet
    Chill... You all getting off topic.

    I personally do not believe in protecting privacy in general,

    although you may try, but you can't deny the fact that anything you leave over anywhere can also possibly be a track that expose your being.

    so why bother? it's like burning gasoline.

    if a person want to invade you life, these info you release will only count as a bonus, because you are ready for it, and they'd love to track you over this small world since google someone is so efficent and so dam easy.
    and what, a blog-ring, circle of friends? is not you that will mostly leak your info, but people around you.
     
  9. Paranoid2000

    Paranoid2000 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2004
    Posts:
    2,839
    Location:
    North West, United Kingdom
    Check out Castlecops: Malware Removal and Prevention for details on how to clean your system - that was the only information missing from Climenole's post (which I would agree, was an excellent one).
    The trouble is that any information you give out can be harvested, aggregated and used to your detriment. As a business, there is certainly information you need to provide but do think long and hard before revealing personal details. Just to build on Climenole's post:

    Email - Change it. If your current email is on a spammer's list, they will sell it and you will receive more and more spam as a result - the only counter is to go on the offensive using tools like SpamVampire but you need technical skills and time to do this.

    Once you have a new email address, obfuscate it as Climenole recommends. Aside from pictures (which could well fall prey to spambots using character recognition in the future), there are other techniques like Address Munging and Obfuscation using CSS.

    Forum/Blog Spam - Numerous tools are available to make spammer's lives miserable. Bots can be defeated by implementing CAPTCHA (Complete Automated Program to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) images while human spammers can be restricted by imposing pre-moderation (posts don't appear until approved), email account verification (users have to supply an email address to receive a confirmation code to sign up - spammers tend to use certain free ISPs so keep an eye out for the most popular and ban them) and filtering known spam URLs.
    Well it certainly is possible to protect your privacy (try finding out my real name, address or age for starters) but it does require skill and effort. By default the Internet is like a glass house where everyone's activities are visible.

    However this is increasingly being abused by advertisers (see The ethics of Internet advertising for some useful links on this), marketers and even retailers (see The Dangers of HTTPS for examples here). Unless you fancy having data brokers drawing up (possibly flawed) lifestyle conclusions about you and selling them to all and sundry, measures to protect your privacy should be a necessity.
     
  10. StevieO

    StevieO Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2006
    Posts:
    1,067
    Dawn

    I also think that Climenole made a splendid and time consuming post full of useful and very helpful info. As did others.

    You said "Big deal/who cares? That's not very personal info. You don't know my real name/address/phone number/bank account info/etc."

    But on another forum you say almost the opposite, and also give lots of reasons why.

    Quote

    "I don't think you can send a users profile out via email (like the "email this page to a friend" feature?). I hope you can't cuz I as a user wouldn't want my profile info available to just anybody/everybody. We fill out our profile info so other members HERE who want to know us can check it out. Not so total strangers can print/save/collect our info. Why would you want such info anyways"

    http://www.bluehostforums.com/showthread.php?p=5250

    It didn't take me long to find a photo of you, very nice, and lots of other info about your likes and dislikes, including signing karaoke in certain places and also your phone number. With the info gained so far, if i wanted to i could find out where exactly you live, so i'm sure others could too !

    I don't want to scare you, but maybe you might be more careful in future, and less dismissive of people who's only wish is to offer you good advice.


    StevieO
     
  11. Dawn's Web Designs

    Dawn's Web Designs Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2006
    Posts:
    4
    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    I don't know if you're new or not. I know I'm not new. I've been a member of some forum for over 2 years. And the techie boards like this one I usually steer clear of cuz you always have at least one...usually several...who just HAVE to talk down to others/treat 'em like they're stupid.

    He didn't just respond to me. Do you not see where he chewed me out for giving out all this personal info about myself? Do you not see these images pointing out all my errors...he couldn't just tell me about 'em he's gotta post images & everything? If peeps didn't know my email address before they sure do now huh? No he went over & above responding to me. Too much info.
     
  12. Dawn's Web Designs

    Dawn's Web Designs Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2006
    Posts:
    4
    Location:
    Tulsa, OK
    There've been some other posters in here who were helpful/didn't talk down to me like I'm stupid & didn't post images all over the place....thank you. :)

    I did delete 3 emails. I did get a gmail account. I did delete one IM & changed the other one - I won't post the new info anywhere. I'm also about to delete one site...one forum...& on the ones I have left I didn't post my new email outright. So I did learn something here & I do thank you.

    To Stevie O...I've been raped 3 times/assaulted twice/& stalked several times in real life. Most of this AFTER watching my mom die of lung cancer just 2 years ago. Now I live in the projects...& we have a gate so I'm locked in here with the bad guys. I also have a semi-automatic shotgun that I do know how to use & I keep it loaded/near me. I also have several knives. Cyberstalkers are the last peeps in the world I'm scared of. If anybody wants to find out my address/show up here...be my guest. But if harms intended I'll blow somebody a new asshole & won't even think twice about it. ;)
     
  13. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Posts:
    20,590
    Geesh. This thread is misnamed. Clearly the computer didn't have a mind of its own. It did exactly what it's owner instructed.
     
  14. snapdragin

    snapdragin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2002
    Posts:
    8,415
    Location:
    Southern Ont., Canada
    Alrighty then. Two off-topic posts removed. Before this thread turns into a discussion on one individual's lifestyle, we'll bring it to a close now.

    To Dawn - we wish you good luck and safety in all your endeavours on line and off, and if you wish to continue learning about computer and internet safety, you are welcomed to post your enquiries here in a new thread.

    To Everyone else - thank you very much for the sound advice and guidance you've offered to Dawn. I'm sure she really does appreciate it as we all do when helping each other.

    Regards,

    snap
     
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