How Hackers Hack Accounts

Hacking has been prevalent these past few weeks.  People I know from the blogging community and the real life report about their online accounts being hacked. Two days ago  a friend I met at one of the Autism Seminars I attend was hacked.   I immediately called her to notify her about the peculiar things happening in her Yahoo! account.

Some person was posing as her and asking for help because she was allegedly stuck in United Kingdom and was robbed and have no money or anything and that tapping her friends via mail is the only means she know to survive this ordeal.

My friend was lucky because I already received the same e-mail from two other friends couple months ago.  Both of them are high ranking government and military officials so I am already familiar with the e-mail.

She told me that suddenly she was not able to log-in her account and after three failed trials of inputing her password failed she was banned for the day.

Hackers E-mail

There’s another blogger who’s accounts were hacked and was able to withdraw$500 via Paypal from her account which is really scary!

Hacking through phishing sites

In the not so distant past my honey and I experience hacking first hand.  We were talking online on Yahoo! and sharing video cam on MSN when suddenly his Yahoo! Messenger logged out and in all too fast and I was talking to a different person already.

We were able to know the hacking immediately because we were in MSN and he was very surprised that he can’t access his Yahoo! and that I told him I was still talking to him at the messenger.

I started talking to this hacker then suddenly he admitted he was not my boyfriend that time and my honey was able to recover his account after at least  more than 15 minutes of trying and I was talking to the hacker.

He was hacked through a phishing site.  A phishing site is a webpage that appear as the legitimate site but it’s actually not.  They will capture all the data you inputed on the site and that is what they will use to hack your accounts.

An example would be the Yahoo! Mail sign-in page where you see the box for your Yahoo! ID and password or a Paypal log-in page with that box for your username and password.  If you frequent your usual web sites you can immediately tell what is fake and not.

He told me he logged in to a site that looks like the Yahoo! Mail homepage.  He was trying to view a webpage when he was directed to that page.  He thought it was the regular Yahoo log-in so he did and that is where the hacking happened.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was not able to log-in my Yahoo!Messenger but I was still logged in my mail.  Suddenly I received an e-mail notice about changing my details and all password and that my account has been inactive for a time that I need to confirm I still use it.

I was immediately suspicious so I did not do it and just let it be.   How the heck it would say that I wasn’t using my account when it’s my main e-mail and I log in every day and logged not less than 4 hours a day!

This is the e-mail notification I got:

This e-mail is so obviously fake, notice how the header image above was tampered. Yahoo! never ask for these details when you forgot your password.

Why people hack accounts


Internet has been an indispensable tool for people anywhere in the world to communicate and/or transact business.   Some would actually store vital personal information online through their e-mail accounts or others.

These are the information that hackers want.  Personal information which they can use to do illegal activities  either through business scams, money laundering or identity theft using information they got from you.

Tips on how to avoid being hacked

1. When logging in a public computer make sure you un-check buttons about remember my password on this computer.  Most internet shop have that check by default.  So be alert.
2. Always clear your cache.   Even if you are using a personal computer or laptop, when you blog hop or surf the net there are sites that ask for your password or log-in to your accounts first.  Some sites are able to capture your data and these are tools that hacker use.
3. Don’t trust an e-mail that ask for your name, occupation, country, and phone number like the one above.  If its from someone you personally know contact them through other means first other than through the internet and ask them if they did ask for these details if not ignore the e-mail or better report to authorities make sure to get the IP.