Playing HYIPs, surfing the 'net - you MUST protect your PC

[path2prosperity]

The problem which I have has with my commuters this year has strange parallels with the attack which I had last December. Last year somebody had hacked into the system and almost destroyed it. Somebody had put me on a proxy server, which my technical support engineers spotted immediately.

I had great trouble accessing the RS site and I discovered the cause of that earlier today. Somebody had placed cookies on my system which were not removed when I closed my Firefox browser. I have deleted them manually and I can read RS without having to create a new ID now.

The cookie which was causing the problem was 5.hidemy.ass.com, which was hosted by a site known as hidemyass.com. When I Googled it, I discovered that, it was a proxy server,

hidemyass.com - Google Search (http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=551&q=hidemyass.com&btnG=Google+Search)



There were other cookies on my computer which supposedly came from RS and obviously did not.

The cookie was skimlinks_enabled . It was reputed to have come from the EZWealth thread on RS.

When I googled this, I thought it looked as if that shimlinks was some sort of marketing company. Skimlinks | Affiliate marketing made easy - content monetization | Skimlinks (http://skimlinks.com)

More experienced members, can see what they can ascertain from the google page which I used to find it.


hidemyass.com - Google Search (http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=551&q=hidemyass.com&btnG=Google+Search#pq=hidemyass.com&hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=10&gs_id=1o&xhr=t&q=skimlinks.com&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=skimlinks.&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v1&aql=f&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=1e2050a6b9987c6b&biw=1024&bih=551)

Please will members here check to see if these malicious cookies have been enabled on their computers.

It is also interesting to know that no sooner I removed the malicious cookies from my system, the block on my IP which prevented me from reading Adlandpro has also disappeared,

[littleroundman]

Somebody had placed cookies on my system which were not removed when I closed my Firefox browser. I have deleted them manually and I can read RS without having to create a new ID now.

There's a salutary lesson for readers in your experience, Judy.

ANYONE who surfs the 'net and ESPECIALLY anyone who visits HYIP forums, such as Adland, Talkgold, MMG and the usual suspects, or "get-rich-quick" sites and anyone who downloads software and/or movies

MUST, MUST, MUST:

1) Keep their operating system updated

2) Run a recognized anti virus program and regularly update it.

3) Run a recognized anti-spyware/spysweeper program which will a) prevent spyware being installed b) clean your system on a regular basis

4) Use a secure browser, such as Firefox

5) Run an anti script program such as the free Firefox addon, "NoScript"

6) Set their browser default security settings to maximum.

7) Use an ad blocking program such as Adblock Plus.

I can almost guarantee anyone who visits HYIP sites and forums and get-rich-quick sites WITHOUT taking all the above precautions will be infected, sooner, rather than later.

Further, I would put money on the fact that there are people reading this thread who have had their computers hijacked and that many of those computers have been or are currently being used as zombies.

[path2prosperity]

There's a salutary lesson for readers in your experience, Judy.

ANYONE who surfs the 'net and ESPECIALLY anyone who visits HYIP forums, such as Adland, Talkgold, MMG and the usual suspects, or "get-rich-quick" sites and anyone who downloads software and/or movies

MUST, MUST, MUST:

1) Keep their operating system updated



I do all the things from 2-7. I have the systems support check everything. It is not a zombie.
Please cam you elaborate on what you mean by keep opperating system updated. Are you saying Windows XP professional is not good enough?

[laidback]

I do all the things from 2-7. I have the systems support check everything. It is not a zombie.
Please cam you elaborate on what you mean by keep opperating system updated. Are you saying Windows XP professional is not good enough?

With whatever OS you use, make sure you have the latest patches and service packs. My preference is W7.

[path2prosperity]

With whatever OS you use, make sure you have the latest patches and service packs. My preference is W7.

Many thanks laidback. I am a bit neurotic about touching systems software without asking advice. When you have time, can you explain what to install for WindowsXP professional in "Old Granny Lingo." My levels of neuroticism are going through the roof.

[laidback]

Don't know if it's "old Granny lingo" but here is the link to XP patches and service packs. If you are uncomfortable doing it your self perhaps there is a techie close by that can help.
How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389)

[path2prosperity]

Don't know if it's "old Granny lingo" but here is the link to XP patches and service packs. If you are uncomfortable doing it your self perhaps there is a techie close by that can help.
How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389)

Fabulous. It is just what I wanted. Readable and well written. Thanks a million.

I decided to spell out how to find out if anybody had placed one of these malicious cookies on your computer to help others who may be infected. LRM was right, that anybody reading this board could have been attacked in order to make them think the site was behaving badly and not come here again.

1) They are not detected by AGV anti-virus, Spybot Search and Destroy, McAfee Security, a registry cleaner or removed by CCleaner.

2) I found out by going to Firefox then Options, Tools, then I clicked Privacy at the top of the page. The system was set to clear cookies from Firefox every time, I closed the browser.

3) I looked at exceptions and there were four which were listed as being placed there by RS. I knew that the cookies had not come from RS EZWealth thread, so I looked at each one and found the site on which these malicious cookies were hosted and I posted the results here and blocked the sites from my computer.

It is unlikely to be coincidence that whoever targeted placed these threats and posed as RS should target the thread in RS, if it was random selection. I believe that it is a deliberate attack against those who post at RS and are not technical enough to recognise the symptoms earlier.

Paranoia or common sense deduction?

[path2prosperity]

I am absolutely delighted to see this thread. I became a scam buster because I could see no future for the growth of real businesses online until "We Scambusters" had helped to tame "The Cyberspace Jungle." I believe that the time has come to, metaphorically speaking "plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land" in a few parts of cyberspace which are relatively free from financial predators

My specialist expertise is "protecting your own backside." I will follow this thread avidly.

I have seen many "dreaded lurgies" come and go. "That is Cynical Ancient Brit Speak" for unknown germs. We hear about disinfectants that kill all known germs. WHAT ABOUT THE UNKNOWN GERMS? That is what I would like to know.

The first really bad threat that I had to overcome was an i-thread and it is a long time since I revised that subject. How many people here have encountered one. I remember when I firs became aware of strange things on my task bar after I had visited GUESS WHERE? I had been surfing EZSurf and Earn run by I think the original owners Jason and Stacy.

A HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO SBM AND TEAM for all their pioneering work.

[path2prosperity]

If any of you have had malicious cookies on your system and found your SKYPE software -uggerd, here is a good solution.

https://support.skype.com/en-gb/faq/FA10634/How-can-I-completely-uninstall-and-then-reinstall-Skype

[scratchycat]

My PC has been attacked you can bet your sweet life it was from Adland because they have our pc IP addresses. I heard today on the news there has been an extra lot of search for computer hacking and cyberharassment on Google.

Perhaps our laws will improve and we fight these criminals better.

I know I am reporting it and I hope others will also.

[scratchycat]

I am absolutely delighted to see this thread. I became a scam buster because I could see no future for the growth of real businesses online until "We Scambusters" had helped to tame "The Cyberspace Jungle." I believe that the time has come to, metaphorically speaking "plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land" in a few parts of cyberspace which are relatively free from financial predators

My specialist expertise is "protecting your own backside." I will follow this thread avidly.

I have seen many "dreaded lurgies" come and go. "That is Cynical Ancient Brit Speak" for unknown germs. We hear about disinfectants that kill all known germs. WHAT ABOUT THE UNKNOWN GERMS? That is what I would like to know.

The first really bad threat that I had to overcome was an i-thread and it is a long time since I revised that subject. How many people here have encountered one. I remember when I firs became aware of strange things on my task bar after I had visited GUESS WHERE? I had been surfing EZSurf and Earn run by I think the original owners Jason and Stacy.

A HUGE ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO SBM AND TEAM for all their pioneering work.

Yes, Yes, Yes!! Thank you so much for all your help and expertise. Let us bring them down who break the law.

[path2prosperity]

I am working on an old computer gathering evidence to present to the top software engineers who are investigating a hacking on my newer computer.

I know that there is a vulnerability on this one and so do my support engineers who will be wiping everything off the hard disk when they have finished with the better one.

When I looked at cookies that were not removed when I closed Firefox I noticed two things.

1) Adlandpro conversion cookie from the main Adlandpro page and several from adlandpro.community including. adlandpro.community_utma,adlandpro.community_utmc, adlandpro.community_utmz,adlandpro.community_utmb,

2) More malicious cookies that have been purportedly placed on my machine by RealScam they include the old favourites from hidemyass.com and skimlinks.com.

I have just added UniblueRegistryBooster to this machine and discovered some facts to present to the computer engineers when I go down to speak to them tomorrow. I suspect that Jim Allen111 and Vonbenkom are not capable of orchestrating such a sophisticated hacking without help from superiors.

[Soapboxmom]

We have all of the latest software updates on Real Scam. As you all would probably recall we were hacked once and a strange link was added. That vulnerability in the software has been taken care of by the latest vBulletin upgrades. If anyone should find anything suspicious we will of course see that it is dealt with promptly.

I would be much more concerned about sites like Scam that do not upgrade or properly monitor their sites. And, do understand that the fixes come after the problems, so all we can do is update and keep an eye on things.

Soapboxmom

[path2prosperity]

We have all of the latest software updates on Real Scam. As you all would probably recall we were hacked once and a strange link was added. That vulnerability in the software has been taken care of by the latest vBulletin upgrades. If anyone should find anything suspicious we will of course see that it is dealt with promptly.



I know the cookies were not deposited by RS Heather. The vulnerability is on this old machine of mine. I know what it is. My computer software support engineers know what it is but Adlandpro is sending malicious cookies to people with the same vulnerabilities as I had a year ago and MAKING IT LOOK as though they come from RS.

My computer support staff say that they can wipe this hard disk clean and get rid of attempted hackings by Terry The ****** and Adlandpro but it is interesting collecting more evidence of their modus opperandi. I hope to have a written report from the software engineers against The ****** and Fiedur's pawns soon.

I never joined scam.com and only visited the site once or twice. That narrows the field as to who has been messing with my machine.
If all members who have visited Adlandpro will check their machines for cookies that should be removed every time you close Firefox, it would help me to discuss the evidence with the chief software engineer of the shop which is use in Putney.

[littleroundman]

I think it's important to point out that what we're talking about here is protecting yourself against "exploits" rather than discussing particular cookies/virus/worms/SQL injections etc.

ANYONE who surfs the 'net and/or uses email is vulnerable.

ESPECIALLY, anyone who plays HYIPs, visits forums and/or downloads ANYTHING.

It may be boring and repetitive, but, as Judys' experience shows, it's all too real.

Please believe me, there are teenage "script kiddies" sitting in his/her bedroom exploiting someone, as we speak.

IRC, in particular, is an almost unlimited source of information which will turn any semi computer literate user into a potential exploiter.

Forget about being targetted, anyone who reads the logs of their modem/browser/anti virus/anti spyware/anti script application will realize someone is attempting to access the "average" users' machine every minute it's online, either directly via the modem or memory device or indirectly through the browser, email program and even multimedia applications.

[scratchycat]

I found this post very interesting especially after reading all your comments here. Must be losing more members to FB and trying to make people think they are safe in Adwonderland.

91-Fraud, corruption, deception and financial terrorism | View Thread | AdlandPro Community (http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/post/2386451/Fraudcorruptiondeceptionandfinancialterrorism/91.aspx)

[scratchycat]

It is obvious that Facebook is tracking people. Do any of you have this happen? While I am in FB and trying to make a comment, I get a message that a script is slowing down this page would you like to stop it? It happens quite often while I am logged in to FB.

[path2prosperity]

Forget about being targetted, anyone who reads the logs of their modem/browser/anti virus/anti spyware/anti script application will realize someone is attempting to access the "average" users' machine every minute it's online, either directly via the modem or memory device or indirectly through the browser, email program and even multimedia applications.

What you appear to be saying LRM is another way of saying, what I have been saying in all my publications, since I came online. Crime is, always has been and always will be the fastest growth industry on the planet. However crime prevention is the second fastest and the gap between the two is growing faster than ever before.

I bought my first office computer in 1979 and payed for superlative support. When I was offered a job as an offline rep for a fine art database in 1997, I bought a bespoke system from a well established supplier in my part of London. I am eternally grateful to those who have supported my system as we do make enemies online and they do try to bring us down.

I am aware that I have incured the wrath of con artists like Krimm, Nickers Smirnow, Mara and whoever runs Adlandpro now. They are no match for my support engineers, so I have taken risks and spoken out against them. I am having both my hard disks wiped as it is a long time since that was done and I have not taken as much care as I should have done.

It is a great mistake to buy a computer without the best hardware and software support that you can aford.

[path2prosperity]

Forget about being targetted, anyone who reads the logs of their modem/browser/anti virus/anti spyware/anti script application will realize someone is attempting to access the "average" users' machine every minute it's online, either directly via the modem or memory device or indirectly through the browser, email program and even multimedia applications.

What you appear to be saying LRM is another way of saying, what I have been saying in all my publications, since I came online. Crime is, always has been and always will be the fastest growth industry on the planet. However crime prevention is the second fastest and the gap between the two is growing faster than ever before.

I bought my first office computer in 1979 and payed for superlative support. When I was offered a job as an offline rep for a fine art database in 1997, I bought a bespoke system from a well established supplier in my part of London. I am eternally grateful to those who have supported my system as we do make enemies online and they do try to bring us down.

I am aware that I have incured the wrath of con artists like Krimm, Nickers Smirnow, Mara and whoever runs Adlandpro now. They are no match for my support engineers, so I have take risks and spoken out against them.

[littleroundman]

It is obvious that Facebook is tracking people. Do any of you have this happen? While I am in FB and trying to make a comment, I get a message that a script is slowing down this page would you like to stop it? It happens quite often while I am logged in to FB.

"scripts" are what enable you to have the 'net experience you have.

Scripts and cookies are not, in themselves, harmful. Without them, the 'net as we know it simply wouldn't work i.e. what happens to you on FaceBook

It's MALICIOUS scripts and cookies which cause the problem.


The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript), Java (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java), Flash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash) and other plugins (http://hackademix.net/2009/02/07/browser-plugins-add-ons-and-security-advisers/) to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank).


NoScript also provides the most powerful anti-XSS (http://noscript.net/features#xss) and anti-Clickjacking (http://noscript.net/faq#clearclick) protection ever available in a browser.


NoScript's unique whitelist based pre-emptive script blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even not known yet!) with no loss of functionality...


You can enable JavaScript, Java and plugin execution for sites you trust with a simple left-click on the NoScript status bar icon (http://noscript.net/features) (look at the picture), or using the contextual menu, for easier operation in popup statusbar-less windows.
Watch the "Block scripts in Firefox" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBqnLgOzwM) by cnet.


Staying safe has never been so easy!
Experts will agree: Firefox is really safer with NoScript!

NoScript - JavaScript/Java/Flash blocker for a safer Firefox experience! - what is it? - InformAction (http://noscript.net/)

An anti-spyware program acts both to prevent dangerous cookies and malware being installed on your system as well as warning when someone attempts top do so, as well as running periodic sweeps of your entire system to pick up any unwanted cookies and give you the option of deleting or retaining them.