Hacking alert [View all]

Admins, please let this off-topic post remain, as it’s important that DUers be warned.

My computer got hacked today, and the path to it started on DU, although I don't suspect any bad behavior on the part of DUers. But I thought I should share my experience, lest this happen to someone else.

I posted a question about the whereabouts of Cha and Her Sister, who haven’t been posting since the very end of July. I got several answers and then a DU Mail telling me that Her Sister was present at a different Hillary site, by invitation only, and she gave me a link to it. She also said that another DUer, who apparently is an administrator on that site said that I had previously had difficulty proving I was a human, so she encouraged me to try again. In retrospect that may have been a red flag… dunno.

The DUer has a long history of postings, so I won’t mention her name here. I also won’t mention the name of the web site unless she gives permission. I won’t try to go back there unless I get a screen shot of posts from her and Her Sister on that site.

Anyway, I successfully created an account via the familiar method of getting an authorization message in e-mail. I tried to actually log on, and got to the point of proving I was a human. It was clear that the login process was handled by a separate company whose name I can’t remember, and I’m afraid to go back and look. I moved a graphic around to prove I was human and then got another “pop up” (I don’t think it was a real popup, just a small window looking thing) that looked just like the first, but this wanted me to get involved in a sales pitch for something completely different. I’m not sure what I did, but then I got a 3rd “popup” that looked just like the first two which asked me to call an 800 number.

Here’s where I get embarrassed. I’m really very good about not clicking on suspicious things. But I called this number. Last week I’d had the experience of letting a real Microsoft technician take control of my computer to help with a failure of two level verification. That was not spurious. They fixed the problem, etc., etc. So I can only attribute my idiocy to a lingering glow.

Bottom line, this technician took control of my computer. He “showed me” how my network and e-mails were hacked. I didn’t suspect criminality until he said I couldn’t call back to engage their fixit services. Fortunately I didn’t go that far. They hung up when I asked for a phone number. I did take a screen shot of the instructions he left in notepad, but I can’t use my computer to put it in dropbox. Can’t use it on the internet til it’s cleaned, according to my techie go-to guy.

I don’t know where the intrusion started, whether the Clinton web site’s login company is bad, or whether the Clinton web site itself is bad. But be forwarned.

Thanks,
LAS