MSN Hacked

[Doris_Pinks]

Someone has hacked my teenagers MSN account and was talking on it to other daughter tonight, weird and creepy stuff. They have changed her password and account question. I have copied the whole weird conversation. Where do I go from here? (have sent a message to MSN) How can she, or can she, get her account back??

HELP  required!!!! I have a very freaked out child here


DP

[Doris_Pinks]

[return of the mac]

See what MSN says. Otherwise see who else might know daughters password as this would be the easiest way for them to hack her account. Email and warn her contacts about this also, so that they know not to talk to 'her'. Has she recently added a contact known as meltdown@hotmail.com?- i heard about this- contains a virus that infects whoever adds it and whoever is on their contact list. Run a virus and spyware scan too, to be safe.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks for your prompt reply! I run virus and spyware scans regularly. She swears no one knew her account details.........but hey, kids will be kids!  She can't remember all the people she had on her contacts list, and certainly has no idea of their e-mails, because it is on her mSN account..................little toad, I actually "talked" to the person earlier and told them I was tracing the conversation, can't be too bright cos they dissapeared real quick! She is quite creeped out by the conversation though, as was I. :(

[Yellow Petals]

It doesn't have to be by somebody you know.  I'm on AOL and when I checked one of my less frequently used screenies the other day, there was about 150 emails in the outbox to people I didn't even know! 

Doris, are we talking about just the messenger service or email too?  Even though her password has been changed, there should be a link on the MSN page saying "I've forgotten my password" or something similar.  Let her click that button and the details will be sent to which ever address she used to set up the MSN (assuming we are talking about the chat service?)  If it's affecting her email too, she will need to contact MSN direct and get talked through a re-set up.  I didn't find a number for them, just a web page contact sheet (which you probably already have)
http://support.msn.com/contactus_emailsupport.aspx?productkey=messenger&ct=eformfree

If it was me, I would ask MSN to terminate that particular account (your daughter has no idea what it might be used for) and let her create another one.

Hope this helps.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks for that YP, yup thats the one I have sent a message to. Her e-mail and her chat are both MSN so of course when we try to go in and change stuff it has been changed by the hacker. Have a phone number for MSN so will try that tomorrow, and see what happens. These people make my blood boil, and anything that upsets me kid upsets me!! >:(

[Tulipa]

Just wanted to send you my sympathies.  My daughter has MSN and we saw a friend sending terrible porn down it to her so I phoned the friend and she wasn't doing it but a virus on her PC.  We switched ours off and the friend ran a virus check and removed it but it was really scarey seeing it happen so I know how you feel.

She also had her friends change her password and question on her school work.  She was very upset about that too but the IT technician could sort that for her.

Sometimes I really hate computers but I love them for having A4a on them!

[maz]

I got an email from my sis, or so I thought,  and when I opened it ,it was from someone else.

He said he'd hacked into her account and now felt bad about it so gave me the details she needed to get back in. He said 'Tell her not to give out her password on a message board' She swears she didnt, but she used her kids names. Didnt take him long to suss it out from that I think.

It was soooo creepy reading someones elses message from her addy.  >:(

How sad that peeps have nothing better to do.  :-\    Hope you get it sorted Doris.

[kenkew]

Some passwords are too easy to guess. Given only basic info and a bit of time many, many passwords are discoverable. It's always better to add something 'in among' your password. If you wanted, for example, 'dogsname' then make it something like 'dog/$nam£'. The extra characters are the stoppers.

[BAGGY]

My friends 12 yr old daughter had someone hack her msn.  I am assuming it was a male as they listed all the disgusting thingst hey wanted to do to her in no uncertain terms.  I think her mum told 'him' where to go and they changed her details.  It is always worth having an ambiguous user name so that it is not obvious of you age and sex etc.

[kenkew]

I'm sure I read someplace about being able to track the IP of an 'intruder'. I'll have to have a look in the archives.

[honeybee]

The same happened to my son Doris.
Someone hacked his messenger.
My son is very knowledgeable on computers and would never give out his password.
He told me about it straight away and it went on for a few days.

The hacker even spoke to me, he was pretending to be my son but i could tell straight away it was the hacker because i knew my son was at his friends at the time and i asked "Where are you" the answer i got  convinced me, so i rang my son to confirm it wasnt him and kept the hacker talking convincing him that he thought i was talking my son, not that he knew i was his mum of course  ;)

I dont know what his game was, he wasnt being harmful in his chat, i suppose he just got  buzz out of doing what he was doing, but as soon as i revealed to him that i knew he was a hacker, he took off.

Anyway its all got sorted now and hasnt happened since , but my son told me two obvious clues to be aware of , are the avator not being the regular one and and also the usual font is not the same too.

[Yellow Petals]

The same happened to my son Doris.

You have a son called Doris?  Bit cruel that, innit?  :P ;D

[Yellow Petals]

I'm sure I read someplace about being able to track the IP of an 'intruder'. I'll have to have a look in the archives.

You are quite right, Ken, they can be tracked.  Most of these arfur daley hackers don't know their a*** from their elbow and wouldn't know how to cover themselves.  They're usually reading hacking instructions from a manual bought on the web entitled "hacking for morons"

Baggy, in your case, I would definitely have contacted the police.

[honeybee]

Lol YP, i should remember to place my commas  ;D

As for the hacking i was asking those that know about it last night and the answer wen above my head :-\
But they were talking about using key logging trackers, its simple when you know how i suppose :-\

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks all, I too chatted to the hacker that night and my last comment to him/her was thanks very much, I have now managed to track your computer...they got off pretty sharpish after that! ;D 
Just hoping it is some kid that is now a touch scared!!
  Spoke to computer wizz cousin yesterday, he said the best thing to do is to cut her losses, e-mail everyone she can to delete her old mail and start afresh! She swears she has never told anyone her password, but I went into her profile and someone has now posted a pic of her, and put in a profile that was never there before! :o  So I am guessing it is some idiot from school. Still waiting to hear from MSN to see if they can delete the account, will call them on Tuesday. The only other option is to take the conversation, which I copied, to the police, but I really can't see them bothering with it, but I might nip into the local cop shop to see what they have to say, some of the stuff was pretty offensive, and decidedly creepy!  Just wish we could hack back into her account!!

[honeybee]

Doris, if you do call to the cop shop, i would be interested to know what they have to say on the subject if you could let me know, thanks.

[MagpieDi]

Hi Doris
Bit of inside info for you from my two teenagers. Daughter had the same thing happen to her a while ago, and lots of her friends too. They sussed it was boys in the 6th form!  My son is now in the 6th form, and informs me that it is not too difficult to hack into MSN messenger, and most of his IT group know how to do it, and they don't need to guess passwords, they've got the software and IT skills to hack straight into it. Apparently, the only thing that might make it slightly more difficult for them, is if you have a d*mn good firewall installed.
Sadly, these boys seem to target girls, just for a prank and tease.   :(

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks for that Magpie :-*  ;D I was thinking it was probably someone from school!   Certainly scared her, which isn't such a bad thing as it reminds them to keep their wits about em! ;)