account comprimised?

[balaa]

I'm really not at all sure why ANYONE would want to do this, but apparently someone just tried to hijack my livejournal. I received a 'lost password' e-mail today, which on it's own I wouldn't find TOO suspicious since it happened once before(although it did make me wonder then too). But then all of a sudden I was booted out of my primary e-mail address and told that the password was changed on that account (the account which the 'lost password' email was sent to). I have NO clue who would do this or for what reasons. I have never given out these passwords to anyone so I do not know how someone could have even guessed them or for what means.

I am posting this primarily just in case this someone does manage to gain control over my accounts again and starts posting suspicious entries or you receive odd e-mails from me... I'm really worried about this and can't fathom why anyone would try to in any way steal my identity. I haven't even used this account to really post anything private as I decided to just use the journal to share art...

Kinda worried now..

Comments

[orangedragoness.livejournal.com]

yikes! I sure hope it was just a weird email blooper and not someone stealing your account :(

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

I woulda thought that too if my email password wasn't suddenly changed too x_C

[seso.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's messed up. *hugs!!* Please try not to worry about it though. It's just not worth stressing over.

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

well the thing is that e-mail is my primary business e-mail..and printed on all my business cards etc..so it'd upset me more to lose the email than LJ. And having someone log into your accounts makes you wonder what other accounts they are getting into..and why or how. x___x

Thanks for the comment hon (which reminds me, did you ever get my e-mail, I sent you my mobile #)

[seso.livejournal.com]

Oh I see what you mean. x_x You're right, that would be a pain to have to change on everything.

Yeah I got your email, I replied to it a while ago in fact. :D Did you receive that one? I wrote a bit of a letter talking about what's been up with me lately so I'd be sad if it didn't go through. XD; I can re-send though?

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

aaaugh nooo I didn't!!! which is why I wondered if you received MY e-mail!!

[seso.livejournal.com]

Aw well at least I know about it now. :) I'll resend. Your yahoo account might be filtering me? My email is andreakoupal (at) gmail.com.

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

I can't really see how that would effect my e-mail and my LJ O_O. I was just checking and writing e-mails when I was booted from my e-mail all of a sudden.

[neondragon.livejournal.com]

This MIGHT be strange for e-mail and LJ... but I know with World of Warcraft you have to watch out for these programs called keyloggers. They're often embedded in suspicious flash files and linked off warcraft forums and websites. If it infects your computer it records your keyboard movements and eventually passes off your user name and password to a third party who hacks into your account and steals all your gold (Warcraft gold can be sold for real world money, though it is illegal).

I wonder if there's a similar program that hijacks e-mails. Might be handy for credit card fraud or accessing anything those e-mails are tied to. (I'd guess with the aim getting into finacial stuff)

Of course, it could just be some crazy internet stalker. But I'd try running your virus protection and perhaps an anti spyware program like adaware or spybot.

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

I actually was just sitting here wondering that as Im running both ad aware and norton scans. Though to be honest, why try to get into my LJ? I mean Ive heard of spammers taking over e-mails to use them to send spam, but to have both of these happen within minutes of each other is what has sent red flags up for me..

But wow...I never knew those could even be embedded in flash files! Thank you for the comment hon!

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Because, I'd be afraid that someone would steal your primary email and LJ and announce that you've changed your paypal address and are taking commissions.

For someone who doesn't follow you as closely as others do, they may very well fall for the scam. =\

I would suggest downloading something like Avast! or AVG. I used to keep a keylogger on my laptop voluntarily and Adaware would never be able to find it. (Hated to resort to it, but I had my suspicions someone was using my lappy in not so good ways when I allowed them to borrow it for "class work".) It was only Avast! that would notify me that it was there.

[tivadu.livejournal.com]

Aren't computers such amazing things? Especially some of the malicious things people can and do with them. Well, hopefully it was just some strange fluke, but to be safe run your spyware/virus updates and scans.

ANYWAYS I hope it all works out and returns to normal for yea!

[jayoen.livejournal.com]

aw man that bites! D: I hope they don't get your account, that would stink ;n; My friend stripeymistress had her account on DA hijacked and she was unable to get it back D: unfortuantely they had to ban it and she had to make a new account. The person seriously screwed all her stuff up though. deleted everything and told her to *gaspexcusemyfrench* "burn in fucking hell bitch". her being a hardcore christian took it extra hard D: and We couldn't figure out why anyone would want to hijack her account either since she's always been so nice and did nothing to deserve it.

But then the real answer reared it's ugly head.
They were holding her account hostage, in an attempt to get free art from her. They agreed to return it if she drew thier OC. That, of course never happened, she never drew this persons OC, and so that persons rude, and uncalled for actions, did not get them the art they apparently so desperately wanted.

Just saying, it might be what they were trying to do to you, I'd watch it carefully and change your passwords everywhere, just to be safe. Because it would really suck if someone took your identity and all you've worked hard for dear :). I give you my best wishes and hope this all clears up soon!

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

thank you for the concern and for the comment, I did think of that. This situation has been since resolved thankfully!

[marbled-genet.livejournal.com]

AUGH!!! There's been SO much hacking going on lately! D8 I don't know why. I've been using the 'net for going on 15 years now, and in the recent months, I've heard more accounts of hacking than I have in my entire time online. o_O

At any rate, I hope everything is OK now. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. :(

Taken!

[torakhan.livejournal.com]

Did you contact the company your primary Email is through to re-acquire your account?

[casidhe.livejournal.com]

Go to a different computer (that you know is clean, like a mac) and change all your passwords. I'd be pretty paranoid from all this if I saw that email.

... just a second thought

[torakhan.livejournal.com]

... just curious... are you SURE that that Email that you got was actually from Live Journal? Did the information you provided back to them (either through an Email reply, or site you followed from it) include your Email and password by chance? (a la Phishing?)

I once fell for a phishing scam myself passed by IM.

Re: ... just a second thought

[nimirpard.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Hope you get it fixed up again. All the advice you need is already posted here. Change your passwords on a clean computer, consider the possibility that the password change mails were themselves just attempts to get you to click a link and log in yourself (thus actually stealing your password in the process).

The malware these days is so sneaky that I wouldn't even try to detect and clean it with antivirus. If you suspect there may be something sneaky on your computer, boot off a CD, format it and start with a clean install. Then put good antivirus on, before you install anything else or copy your docs back.

Re: ... just a second thought

[ketrava.livejournal.com]

I gotta bump this comment nimir and torak both have solid suggestions. As for the why? Because they can. I once had my boyfriends wow account hacked and DEMOLISHED not sold just destroyed remade destroyed remade, because I accidentally forgot to unmute someone who was being an ass in vent. They got offended and because I don't run much of anything on my gaming pc he went for my boyfriends who runs tons of addons. If some other stuff shares the same password login combo they may have just been feeling malicious.

Ketrava

Re: ... just a second thought

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

I never click change password links in e-mails but even so Im fairly certain it was from lj. The situation has since been sorted out though, but I really thank everyone for all their supportive comments and suggestions as to what it may have bee.

Re: ... just a second thought

[torakhan.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad to hear that you got it taken care of--you're luckier than most, I'd assume.

[kasamoon.livejournal.com]

that's horrible! I hope that they don't do anything horrible to your email or LJ....

What email provider do you use? I know that there was some worm type thing that was going through yahoo, and it got into my account, sent out a mass spam email to all my contacts, and then deleted all of my contacts! It was very frustrating, but it was from the yahoo end, not from my computer, which hadn't been on at the time the email was sent. I think I heard that its going through hotmail, too.

Though, the LJ thing is fishy, I had that happen to my gaia account once, but nothing happened. It could've just been a prank, and that the two incidents are unrelated.

You're so nice, though, that if anyone started sending mean emails from you're account, I don't think anyone would believe that you wrote them. *nodds*

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the warm thoughts hon! I managed to resolve the situation quietly but am thankful for everyones support and encouraging comments. *hugs!*

[zur-fur.livejournal.com]

Oh for shits sake honey! I can't believe someone has done this! That's so ridiculous! People these days....Holy hell.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

GACK!! Glad you caught it in time! ;P *arrrrrgh*.....

[kimbalemur.livejournal.com]

Why would someone want to do that to you?