Real Story from Liz — Sh*t happened after she lost her phone

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Losing your phone doesn’t simply mean you can’t call or text.  Here’s the story from our reader, Liz, who lost her phone last year and it turned out to be…

I received a notification saying I had *just* accepted a friend request from some guy I didn’t know, but I definitely hadn’t accepted the request. Then I saw that I had somehow started having an inbox conversation with this guy (some random dude from Moldova), and I had said ‘Hi’ to him, when I definitely hadn’t!! I was freaking out! Turns out the guy bought the iphone I lost last year, and had found my FB still logged in on my phone (somehow)… and had added and messaged himself from MY account ! He then went on to ask me for my icloud password, presumably to get access to my private data. I was so worried because my icloud was of course linked to my bankcard and bank account! i changed all my passwords and disconnected the phone from my account :S
Very crazy!

Hi Liz,

Thanks Liz for sharing her story with us.  It is really SCARY that the scammer was actually using your account after a year.  I hope that everything has fixed right now.  Indeed, there’re several things you should do right after you lost your phone.

 Change your passwords immediately

The scammer may read through your social media accounts to steal your personal information or use it for some other purposes. What’s worse, they may use your P2P payment apps like Venmo and Apple Pay to purchase thing.

Contact your banks and check your financial statement 

If you saved your credit card details, account number, and password on your phone; when your phone is getting into the wrong hands, the scammer may use it to shop online.  So remember to report to your bank and put an alert on your accounts.

Wipe the data from your phone

At last, if you still cannot find your phone, you can wipe all the data from your phone.  If you are using an Android phone, you can do so by using Where’s My Droid app.  For those who are using iPhone, you can wipe your data by signing in your iCloud account or using the Find me iPhone app.  However, once you wipe all the data, you will not be able to undo it.

Your identity is everything.  Protect it or risk it?

-KYCL-

The Facebook dislike button may be a scam

Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the long desired ‘dislike’ button would be publicly revealed soon.  However, the scammers have already used the dislike button as bait to trap Facebook users into believing that clicking on some links would give them an early access to the dislike button.  The new dislike button scam is expected to spread fast and wide due to its nature and how the Facebook users are anxiously waiting to get the dislike button.

So how would the scammer trick you?

The dislike button scam is a link that explicitly designed to spread through Facebook when one user misleadingly clicks the link and claims for the dislike button.

The Headline of scam link reads: “GET NEWLY INTRODUCED FACEBOOK DISLIKE BUTTON ON YOUR PROFILE.”

Screenshot from Facebook

What’s next?

Screenshot from Facebook

After clicking through, there are two more steps to activate the so-called newly introduced Facebook dislike button on users’ profiles.

Users are required to share this page with their friends and send it to five of the groups that they belong to.

Once the link is successful in spreading on users’ Facebook, the scam page will then require users to fill out surveys in order to gather their personal information and account details.  Consequently, the information collected will be used to spam their contacts via email.

In the end, the users cannot activate the dislike button.

Obviously, Facebook-provided Dislike button wouldn’t require the users to go to some random-looking third-party site to download it.  Hence, when you encounter any random-looking third-party on Facebook, REMEMBER NOT to CLICK IN AND PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.  As identity is everything.  Protect it or risk it?

-KYCL-

What to do when your Facebook account was hacked?

Source: “Facebook Headquarters Entrance Sign Menlo Park” by LPS.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#/media/File:Facebook_Headquarters_Entrance_Sign_Menlo_Park.jpg

Facebook has become a part of our daily life.  For most people, it is a nightmare when their Facebook accounts are hacked.  Imagine if someone has access to all your photos, private messages, he/she could even contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete/ use your personal information.  Following Miss J’s case and comment from our reader, Liz from the last blog, there’re 4 things you should do when your Facebook account is hacked.

1. Change your password.

In case you are lucky enough that your password has not been changed. It’s time for you to change your password.

Go to > Home > Settings> General Account Settings > Password to change your password

Screenshot from Facebook

2. Get control of your Facebook account back

As to secure your account, go to www.facebook.com/hacked

Follow the Facebook instructions.  This process can also help if your account or computer has been affected by a virus or malware.

3. Do damage control

After you regain the control of your Facebook account and change your password, you should inform your friends about the Facebook account hacked, just in case the hacker has abused or currently is abusing your account.

If you still can’t access your account, you should try to contact your Facebook friends by other social media platforms, via email, or ask a mutual friend to help you to inform them via Facebook.  When you again gain access, proceed to step 3.

4. Remove suspicious applications

Sometimes, it is not the identity thieves who have tried to hack into your account randomly, but rather we have granted them access to our personal information in some malicious application.  Hence, you should remove some suspicious applications.

To remove suspicious applications,

Go to Home > Setting > Apps and go through the list.

Click X to remove the apps

Click Edit Settings to change what the app can do.

Screenshot from Facebook

-KYCL-

Real Story from Miss J. — Hacked Facebook Account

Modified from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facebook.svg

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Hi Miss J,

Thanks for your email.  I am grateful that you are willing to share your case with our readers and us.

It is sad to hear that your Facebook account was hacked or taken over by someone else. I understand that having your Facebook account hacked is a nightmare.  Imagine if someone has access to all your photos, private messages, he/she could contact your friends, abuse your Facebook page, and delete/ use your personal information.  I am glad that when your Facebook account was hacked, you didn’t suffer any loss.  In the next blog, I will talk about the 4 things you should do immediately when your Facebook account is hacked.  Stay tuned!!!

Cheers,

KYCL

How to protect yourself from financial identity theft & credit card fraud

In one of the previous Facebook posts on our Facebook page, one of our readers commented that he would like to know more about how to prevent financial identity theft.  So here’s the blog!!!

Photo credit: Lending Memo

The Facebook post is a YouTube video, ‘Why care about identity theft?’ produced by Federal Trade Commission.  This video is about the story of Lynn.  Lynn never had a credit card or borrow money.  One day, Lynn decided to apply for a credit card.  She sent out the application, but the company turned her down.  She got a free copy of credit report and found out that someone used her name to apply for 8 credit cards and she even had a car loan.

So here are some tips to protect yourself from financial identity theft and credit card fraud

Watch your information online

Online shopping and banking have become much more common nowadays.  With all the account numbers and passwords floating around, identity thieves can easily steal your information.

• Clear your logins and passwords especially when you are using a public computer.
• Change logins and passwords regularly
• Use credit card rather than debit card overseas or for shopping on the internet as any amount stolen comes directly from your own funds and may take some time to get the money back into your account
• Be aware for phishing, which is spam or pop-ups mimic legitimate banks or businesses to obtain your personal information. The identity thieves will use it to access your accounts.
• Always verify that you’re on a familiar Web site before entering personal information

Monitor your bank and credit card statements

• Check your accounts regularly
• If you find something irregular, report it to your bank and police immediately

Verify your mailing address with the post office and financial institutions

• Identity thieves may fill out the change of address forms so that you won’t be able to check your credit report and aware of the fraud.

Shred sensitive documents

• Shred outdated bank statements, credit card applications and anything with your personal information before throwing away or recycling.

Purchase identity theft protection service

• There are different services offered in the market, for example from the identity theft protection firms, banks or insurers. Pick the one that suits your need
• Specialty companies, like LifeLock and TrustedID

-KYCL-

UNSW Facebook site is hacked by the identity thief AGAIN in two days.

The University of New South Wales’ Facebook page was flooded with a series of images of porn stars and other inappropriate content in two embarrassing hacks.

Shortly before the UNSW’s Open day, images of semi-clad women and links to sex tips were posted on its Facebook page.  One of the posts displayed images of a porn actress Mia Khalifa, while others showed photos of women’s bottoms and breasts, instructions on how to French kiss and picture of guns.

 

Screenshot from UNSW Facebook page

The UNSW spokesperson said they found out its page had been hacked early on Saturday morning and tried more than three hours to reach the administrators in Australia and internationally.  After six hours, the UNSW managed to regain access to the site through other means and remove all the racy content.

However, the second bout of hacking on the UNSW Facebook page over the weekend began late on Sunday night.  The UNSW Facebook page started posting more lewd images, including images of soft core porn and sex advice and rather a weird link to the ‘best universities in Italy’.

Screenshot from UNSW Facebook page

Those posts hit a large numbers of likes and comments.  At midnight on Sunday, the UNSW published a Tweet stated that it alerted the hack.

Screenshot from Twitter @UNSW

So why had the UNSW’s Facebook page been hacked?

One told SMH that the intern had been handed the keys to the Facebook account, whereas some suggested that the UNSW staff must be drunk.   However, Hacklabs director Chris Gatford said that there were 2 possible scenarios for the embarrassing hacks:

1. Person who had the authorisations was trapped into providing the password, like phishing email
2. Hacker guessed the username and password barrier

The UNSW has long been exposed to cyber-attacks.  In 2013, students and staff were subjected to a number of intrusion attacks by unidentified hackers.  25 affected servers and a number of user accounts were shut down on Jan 5, 2014.

The hacking scandal affects the UNSW’s reputation, upsets potential students’ impression on the UNSW and makes the UNSW embarrassed especially when it failed to deflect the second hack.

The hacking scandals exposed the poor cyber security at the UNSW.  Sydney IT security expert, Troy Hunt criticized the UNSW for not implementing basic IT security protocols.  The cyber-attacks did tap into greater fears over the UNSW cyber security and the confidentiality of student information as in the university information system, it contains countless student data like health, academic records and contact details. Indeed, such hacking scandals are just reflecting the regularly occur cyber-attacks at universities across Australia.

Identity is everything.  We should not only take action after things happened, rather we should prevent it.  Here are some tips to prevent identity theft for personal/ organisation Facebook page.

1. Use two-step password system, known as a multi-authenticator login through a secondary source, such as an SMS
2. Only senior staff are allowed to hold the key information
3. Use a more complex password combination
4. Change the password more frequently
5. Prohibit IT staff from drinking during their shift

-KYCL-