msn hacking

[zipatronic]

I just want to ask you lot out there in the big wide world if any of you have had your msn hacked recently? or had any other weird occurrences??

I'm asking because a friend of mine just has......

sed friend lives in barnsley and when she types she types with a sheffield/ barnsley accent ( i know it sounds weird but she does) and sed person was on line and sent me a message saying these are the pics from my vacation...

now i know for a fact thats 1 word she wouldnt use. she normally talks a lot to but this time she said very little and kept putting up the same txt.
they sent me a zip file to download which was supposed to be the pics but when i downloaded it, it came up as a .scr file

i txted her to ask if she was online and sending me stuff but she wasnt.
i warned whoever it was that my friend wasnt online and to get off now and they soon disappeared.

now sed friend is very worried that some 1 has had access to there computer and may have access to there files and pass words etc.
she sed she hasnt given out her pass word for msn but she thinks she might have added some 1 as a friend on msn that was from america.

she does have a firewall and anti-virus software in place.

any ideas, comments.

We all use msn and i thought it was secure but maybe not..

 

[Michael Merola]

Bit of text talk in your message

Well known virus programs floating around MSN all the time. What you have accepted is more then likely a virus or trojan (which your friend may of had)

The firewall wouldn't make a difference as you allowed MSN to go through ur firewall.

Firstly, anti virus scan - use an up to date scanner to look for files using the programs Deep Scan / Extensive option, not just critical system scans. Obviously disconnect from the internet when doing this (if possible) and it may take a while, advise your friend to do the same.

Some online decent scanners are, AVG , Panda , Nod32 (which I use, has a free trial)

Mike

 

[evoonline]

hiya jeff m8. they have access to their PC or just msn messenger account?

if its just msn then change the passwords and include numbers and letters to make it real difficult to guess

if they have access to the PC then how? someone breaking into her house? family member? sounds like she has a virus though. spreads by getting people to download a file, when opened it sends messages to all in the computers friends list so on and so forth. unsure on how to remove it but ive had it in the past.

*beat me to it *

 

[baby dave]

I know it sounds stupid but people can quite simply get your password if they know your answer to the 'secret' question. All i can recommend is changing the answer to something completely random so even with the question you can never guess...

Just a possibility though.

 

[webber]

Well this was happening to my friend aswell.
I am guessing she has clicked on one of these dodgey links or files that gets sent around msn. and then does the same to other people on your contact list.
Had she left the computer on while she was away. as it is likely to send it even when she isn't on msn herself.

 

[zipatronic]

To be honest im not sure what the scale of the problem is.
she wasnt even aware of the problem till i pointed it out and how far it goes is any bodies guess.
ive told her to change her passwords and make sure all her anti virus etc is up to date...

 

[zipatronic]

oh and to be honest there is very little txt speak in there at all.....

 

[Michael Merola]

Ignore that secret question stuff, that's not what is going on here.

Its a trojan, just tell her to use an up to date scanner and do a full system scan. secondly, update MSN itself - I believe the latest version has its own built in virus scanner (don't quote me on that)

Mike

 

[zipatronic]

so how come it (for a better word) sent me a file??

 

[Michael Merola]

Part of the coding includes it to re-send itself, that's how it spreads Like the e-mail scams a while ago, scans your whole address book and re-sends. Its how viruses and trojans spread so quickly

Mike