Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Thanks Leo! Now that is what I call a solid answer. Thank you! The IP does not concern me as I am not worried at all about anyone knowing the area I live in as myspace displays that anyway. This indeed answered my question quite thoroughly/
Posted by: Andy at December 17, 2009 5:53 PM
I agree with everything you said. A word to the wise is sufficient but most people need a longer explanation. You said never accept a file transfer that you don't expect, or don't completely trust. There are viruses that routinely propagate by using file transfers to trick you into downloading something that's not at all what it would seem.
That is 100% correct but some people might not understand what that means and feel safe in running an attachment sent by a trusted friend. However, most viruses I've received were from trusted friends whose email program had been hijacked by a trojan. I actually ran the first one thinking it was a program sent by a friend. So I would take the warning one step further. Don't run any email attachments unless the sender specifically contacted you and told you they were sending this progam, otherwise it might be sent from their computer without their knowledge.
Posted by: Mark at December 18, 2009 3:43 AM
Mark:
However, most viruses I've received were from trusted friends whose email program had been hijacked by a trojan.
We recently had a client call us for exactly that reason. She kept getting complaints from her friends, wondering why she was sending all these porn e-mails. It turned out her computer was infected with a program that harvested her address book and spammed to it. (Fortunately, it appears that it didn't forward the address book back to the "real" spammer, as cleaning her system stopped the e-mails.)
Posted by: Ken B at December 18, 2009 1:16 PM
Given the following comment -- "I wonder at her occasional conversations if indeed she could be snooping such as in My Pictures folders" -- could he perhaps be set up to share pictures with the other person? (see also http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=WL_Messengerv9&querytype=keyword&query=nogol)
Posted by: Mark B at December 22, 2009 9:23 AM
Since he mentions this is an "old flame", isn't it more likely that at one time he accessed his IM account on her computer and it saved his password? My current boyfriend told me once that he had used his ex's pc and when the pop-up window came up to remember the password, he accidentally clicked yes. I suggest this guy change his password and see if the strange conversations stop.
Posted by: Kathy C at December 22, 2009 10:21 AM
An important side note...I fell for this one...it's quite possible to be spammed through IM's...please read on.
I'm an IT guy and my friend is also an IT guy. While chatting about something technical in Google Talk, we were sending each other links. We also routinely make fun of very bad English (aka "Engrish"). This particular day, in the midst of our tech chat, I get a message through Google Talk from him, it's written in very bad "Engrish" and it has a link. Thinking my friend is just being goofy, I clicked the link and it took me to a very strange web page. I looked around on that page and then replied in Google Talk to my friend, "What is this?" At that point, he was completely confused how that message was sent to me because he DID NOT SEND IT. This is a close friend and I trust he was just as confused as I was. Our conversation was somehow hijacked and this simple spam message and link were inserted into it. I got off lucky because it did not ask me to "log in". If it had been a Google-style login, I very possibly would have tried logging in because again, it was a perceived good link from a trusted friend. He and I both reported this too Google on a message board along with many others...so apparently I'm not the only victim of this sort of thing.
Scary. Every link in IM needs to be viewed with skepticism.
23-Dec-2009
Posted by: Gabe at December 22, 2009 12:48 PM
Someone is reading my IM's while they are logged off and are telling me everything I am saying to someone else. They are doing this with my emails as well. What do I do to fix the problem.
Make sure your machine is spyware free, make sure there's no monitoring software (parental or otherwise) installed, make sure your internet connection is secure (particularly if you're using wireless), and make sure your account is secure and that only you have access.
16-Jan-2010
Posted by: Jennifer at January 16, 2010 5:11 AM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Comments
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Thanks Leo! Now that is what I call a solid answer. Thank you! The IP does not concern me as I am not worried at all about anyone knowing the area I live in as myspace displays that anyway. This indeed answered my question quite thoroughly/
Posted by: Andy at December 17, 2009 5:53 PMI agree with everything you said. A word to the wise is sufficient but most people need a longer explanation. You said
Posted by: Mark at December 18, 2009 3:43 AMnever accept a file transfer that you don't expect, or don't completely trust. There are viruses that routinely propagate by using file transfers to trick you into downloading something that's not at all what it would seem.
That is 100% correct but some people might not understand what that means and feel safe in running an attachment sent by a trusted friend. However, most viruses I've received were from trusted friends whose email program had been hijacked by a trojan. I actually ran the first one thinking it was a program sent by a friend. So I would take the warning one step further. Don't run any email attachments unless the sender specifically contacted you and told you they were sending this progam, otherwise it might be sent from their computer without their knowledge.
Mark:
We recently had a client call us for exactly that reason. She kept getting complaints from her friends, wondering why she was sending all these porn e-mails. It turned out her computer was infected with a program that harvested her address book and spammed to it. (Fortunately, it appears that it didn't forward the address book back to the "real" spammer, as cleaning her system stopped the e-mails.) Posted by: Ken B at December 18, 2009 1:16 PMGiven the following comment -- "I wonder at her occasional conversations if indeed she could be snooping such as in My Pictures folders" -- could he perhaps be set up to share pictures with the other person? (see also http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=WL_Messengerv9&querytype=keyword&query=nogol)
Posted by: Mark B at December 22, 2009 9:23 AMSince he mentions this is an "old flame", isn't it more likely that at one time he accessed his IM account on her computer and it saved his password? My current boyfriend told me once that he had used his ex's pc and when the pop-up window came up to remember the password, he accidentally clicked yes. I suggest this guy change his password and see if the strange conversations stop.
Posted by: Kathy C at December 22, 2009 10:21 AMAn important side note...I fell for this one...it's quite possible to be spammed through IM's...please read on.
I'm an IT guy and my friend is also an IT guy. While chatting about something technical in Google Talk, we were sending each other links. We also routinely make fun of very bad English (aka "Engrish"). This particular day, in the midst of our tech chat, I get a message through Google Talk from him, it's written in very bad "Engrish" and it has a link. Thinking my friend is just being goofy, I clicked the link and it took me to a very strange web page. I looked around on that page and then replied in Google Talk to my friend, "What is this?" At that point, he was completely confused how that message was sent to me because he DID NOT SEND IT. This is a close friend and I trust he was just as confused as I was. Our conversation was somehow hijacked and this simple spam message and link were inserted into it. I got off lucky because it did not ask me to "log in". If it had been a Google-style login, I very possibly would have tried logging in because again, it was a perceived good link from a trusted friend. He and I both reported this too Google on a message board along with many others...so apparently I'm not the only victim of this sort of thing.
23-Dec-2009
Posted by: Gabe at December 22, 2009 12:48 PM
Someone is reading my IM's while they are logged off and are telling me everything I am saying to someone else. They are doing this with my emails as well. What do I do to fix the problem.
16-Jan-2010
Posted by: Jennifer at January 16, 2010 5:11 AM
To post a comment on "Can someone I'm IM'ing with see my machine or hard disk?", please return to that article's main page.