Wednesday, April 19. 2006

Geocities Link Via Yahoo Messenger

Lately I've been getting messages similar to this "geocities.com/new_look" from friends on Yahoo Messenger. Having been so used to clicking links sent by pals, I clicked on the first message I received. And came to the Yahoo Photos page requesting me to log in with my Yahoo credentials. The url looked legit - www.yahoo.com - so I logged in. Nothing happened. I didn't see no new_look pics of my friend. And that raised alarm bells.

I googled for more info and found that this is actually a phishing attempt. Where scoundrels make you divulge important information like your username, password and possibly other stuff like credit card information and use them for their nefarious ends. Good golly, someone somewhere now could possibly have my Yahoo password.

So I changed my password like a shot. And it doesn't hurt to scan my pc for spybots that may have been planted unknowingly when I clicked on that link.

The next time you receive such links or any mysterious links without your friend being online to explain to you why exactly they are sending the links to you, DO NOT click on them. No matter how tempting or interesting the link looks. It's better to be bored and safe than sorry.

For more info on this scam click here
Posted by coolcat in Techy at Permalink | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)
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*I think I've fallen for the same trap myself. Haven't scanned my PC for spyware though. If you have, what did you find?
#1 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 02:04 (Reply)
*I couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary from running SpyBot. But my pc did crash minutes after I blogged about this. Had to re-install XP after failing to resuccitate it :-(
#2 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 06:32 (Reply)
*I kena also, but i now cannot get into my Yahoo! password changed! So i cannot msg you via my orangemaniac yahoo now!

Sad lah.
#3 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 08:11 (Reply)
*Yalar, I got the latest msg from your orangemaniac account. The culprit must have signed in from there :-O
#4 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 08:12 (Reply)
*How to get back my Orangemaniac now?
#5 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 12:17 (Reply)
*Have you tried recovering your password via the Yahoo! sign in help? There's a very slim chance that they haven't changed the email address that Yahoo will send the password reset confirmation to. Otherwise, I guess you might have to say hello to Orangemaniac1.
#6 coolcat (Homepage) on 2006-04-19 12:45 (Reply)
*i dont provide them any personal info (like second email or real name or address) or stuff like that because of the fear of phishing. So there is no way i could recover the password. Never mind, no you can yahoo me via - [email]joshua317@yahoo.com[/email]
#7 Anonymous on 2006-04-19 23:22 (Reply)
*Yikes! I don't click on anything 'til people yell at me and say "Why haven't you responded??"

I try to alert people ahead of time if I'll be sending them an attachment or any links, too.

Sorry for you troubles, I know if YOU had to reinstall XP, it had to be bad!

Spybot is good, but I'm a firm believer in running several programs. I've got about 5 spyware/virus programs running all the time, some freeware, some paid.
#8 Anonymous on 2006-04-20 00:03 (Reply)
*Josh, ok, gotcha. Good to see the real you online again, buddy.

Mark, yeah, it's bad and sad :-( Better be cautious than sorry. You can always apologise to yr frens later for not clicking on them links ;-)
#9 coolcat (Homepage) on 2006-04-20 00:08 (Reply)

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