Internet HIJACK !

After a week, I am quite released after the hacking incident. I was able to talk to my family and friends who have been chatting with the hacker pretending to be me. Good thing, they got my message before they could be trapped. Some got it late but very very few were deceived. And the only thing that hacker wants is a globe prepaid cards. Now, I can conclude that hacker is a Filipino. Probably, a young person who doesn’t have anything to do during the day except spending all the time in front of the computer. Playing games, learning new tricks which includes violating one’s privacy. And once privacy is violated he can get money and information out of it by using one's Yahoo ID.

In the Philippines, loading cellular phone is through prepaid cards. If you do not have a line you can ask someone or a friend to charge your cellular phones through one’s cellular phones. For the benefits of those who live abroad and not familiar with this prepaid. This is how it works :

A P500.00 Globe Prepaid Call & Text Card will not work without a Globe Prepaid SIM Card. It is non-refundable and irreplaceable. The worth on the card must be used within two (2) months from first use.

How to load prepaid: 1. Dial 223 and press SEND. 2. Enter the first ten digits of the PIN and press #. 3. Enter the last 6 digist of the PIN and press #. 4. A voice prompt will then confirm that the reload attempt is successful. This is what happened to my young cousin who lost 5k by reloading hacker's cellular phones.

Okay what is a hacker? This is to signify "a clever programmer" or "somebody who tries to smash into computer systems.As I searched for an explanation, according to Raymond he listed five possible characteristics that qualify one as a hacker.

• A person who enjoys learning details of a programming language or system
• A person who enjoys actually doing the programming rather than just theorizing about it
• A person capable of appreciating someone else's hacking
• A person who picks up programming quickly
• A person who is an expert at a particular programming language or system, as in "Unix hacker"

Now, how to track hackers and avoid them. Talking about my own personal experience what they do is :

1. Buzz you.

2. Sending you “Musta na?” (How are you?) Unfortunately, this is very ordinary so be very careful.

3. Nasaan or sino kasama mo? (Who’s with you or are you with someone?)

4. Anong oras na dyan ? (What time is it there?) Sometimes, this is common especially when you have many friends abroad. Time difference is important in catching up.

5. Sira yung webcam ko eh invite mo naman ako. Check ko lang kung okay. (My cam is not working please invite me. Will check if it’s okay.) If you are not sure ask the person first to invite you while chatting. Take note they can record images from your webcam, hacker did it to me. You will notice if the image becomes smaller, that is a good sign of hacking!

6. Meron daw kasing 1 hr. maintenance ang Yahoo dito. (There is a 1 hour yahoo maintenance here) If they know your abroad they might use it against you. So do not store important information in your inbox like bank accounts, address, telephone numbers and vice versa. It would be safer to keep it with you. My friend stored a lot from her inbox even her bank accounts, the bank called her that someone is impersonating her. Good thing that banks has an strict SOP otherwise you're dead !

6. Oi, share ko sayo latest pictures ko. (Hey, I will share you my latest pictures) So don’t get excited (like I did and thinking my friend is preggy and tries to surprise me) Do not open a file, check the source if it’s with “https”. Second, check the existence of a security device known as padlock on the lower right side of the site from your computer.

7. Favor naman o ! (This is how all my friends told me but hacker didn’t do it with me). So be very cautious about doing favors!

8. As Makis has just said….Try to break the habit of having one username & password for everything. When your password is phished, they will have access to your Yahoo email & get information, giving them more list of contacts. They might probably try your phished password to Friendster, Facebook, Multiply etc to get more contacts to scam.


These are examples of messages I got from friends. This is not to convince you that hackers, crackers etc but to warn you they are for real !

OH MY GOD HAZE.. BUTI NA LANG YOU SENT THIS MESSAGE. SO HINDI IKAW ANG NAGPABILI SAKIN NG 50 PCS NA TIG 500 NA GLOBE PREPAID CARD..SABI KO NA NGA BA EH SOMETHING’S WRONG..VERY STRANGE.. ALAM MO BA NA NAG CREATE PA SYA NG BAGONG YAHOO ID GIRLCUTE3245 KASI DAW SHE WANTS TO HAVE ANOTHER ID ASIDE FROM HGGIRALDI.. SINCE NAGKAKAKUTOB NA NGA AKO I ASKED HER.. IS THIS REALLY YOU HAZE? SABI NYA YES I WILL SHOW MYSELF ON CAM.. PRIOR TO THAT I ASKED HER.. OK HOW DO I CALL YOU? SHE IGNORED MY QUESTION, INSTEAD SHE SHOWED HERSELF ON CAM NA IKAW ANG NAG APPEAR?? BUT STILL NAG DOUBT PA DIN AKO KASI THE WAY SHE SPEAKS IS REALLY NOT YOU.. WALANG ATE RISE.. SO DEMANDING AND IN A RUSH.. NAGBIGAY PA NG MOBILE NUMBER DUN KO DAW I SEND MGA PASSWORDS NG CARDS..THEN NAG TEXT ULIT THIS MORNING ASKING "NAKABILI KA NA? " TALAGANG DI AKO MAPAKALI SO I DECIDED TO GO ONLINE.. YUN NA NGA.. HAAAY.. MUNTIK NA..THIS IS HER MOBILE NUMBER 09279475929.. I WOULD LIKE TO REPORT THIS NUMBER NGA EH.. I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO.. THANKS FOR WARNING US..TAKE CARE. ATE RISE

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Hi Hazel,
Yes nakausap ko rin kahapon yung Hazel and Jenni. Pati si Ellen and Jenny (colleague in the office) nakipagusap din sya using your account. Akala ni Ellen ikaw yon. Si Rey naman ang nakausap din nya was someone pretending Jenni. Please give me or send me na lang sa ym your new ID.
Take care.
Ate Emilie

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hi haze.. me nakipag chat nga sa kin kanina kala ko ikaw, nag send ng pic but i cant open it, then view pa web cam ko... mejo nagtaka na nga ako kung bakit parang sobrang strange dahil sobrang eager na makita ako so i stopped the web cam and log off... tingin mo na hacked na nun ang email id ko?...
gosh who do u think is doing this.. it’s a Filipino kasi tagalog ako kinausap eh...
cheers...
Aimee


Thanks to Raqgold for blogging about this and I am asking you to please spread this message to warn everyone especially those unaware that phishing is for real.

For me hackers and crackers are the same because they are invading one's privacy. Just for an additional infos :

HACKER,( n.): 1) A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities. 2) One who programs enthusiastically. 3) A person who is good at programming quickly. 4) An expert at a particular program, as in "a Unix hacker". 5) [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. The correct term for this sense is "cracker".

CRACKER, ( n.): One who breaks security on a system. Coined by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of the term "hacker". The term "cracker" reflects a strong revulsion at the theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings. There is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than most would suspect.



Comments

SHIELA said…
thanks for sharing. kakatakot naman yung experience mo. ingat ka.
Anonymous said…
walang magawang magaling ang hacker na yan...so evil!
thanks for sharing this useful warning
Raquel said…
Hi Haze, nabasa ko lahat. Thanks for the warning. Grabe ang hacker na yun, alisto talaga. Btw, pati account # and some important password ay nasa yahoo ID ko. I will surely delete those...thanks for this warning.
Chibog in Chief said…
I'm glad you are over it positively. It's a great thing too that you talked about this on your blog to warn people..pero honestly ang cheap cheap nya ha...pre-paid cards lang ang habol nya LOL bises
Mommy in School said…
ay naku, i'm extra cautious nowadays dahil may magandang lesson dito sa blog mo, thnks.

Mahalia
http://chocolateword.net
Unknown said…
i also received a message on friendster from one of my friends about the same thing. tsk! tsk! this is terrible!
Angelo said…
Hi Haze, good thing your friend knows you better than to get fooled. I hope they catch the idiot.
yusop said…
These are very good tips especially now that I suspect that somebody's is hacking my cellphone, for everytime I load, it gets empty just a day after. I am planning to change my sim card but that is just so tedious.
Napotzki said…
Hi Haze, I was browsing on Ana's page and got curious. Really thanks for sharing your experience and prevention tips.
Anonymous said…
grabe haze no? buti na lang you let everybody know about it rightaway. take care!
raqgold said…
those hackers are out for easy money, kakainis ano? mga walang magawang mabuti. and i salute you for your quick actions.
Leah said…
I updated your link na. I hope all is ok. Thanks for the warning. Ang ibang tao talaga, they really try to take advantage. Ingat lagi.
Sidney said…
Those hackers are very creative... good he didn't succeed in his attempt to deceive you and your friends!
raqgold said…
hi haze, i just discovered a trojan virus in my PC just now. please make sure you scan your PC before logging into any of your accounts. baka that hacker timed that virus in my computer a little later kaya ngayon lang sya na detect. i dont really know but be careful, okay? i dont really need this thing right now as you know we are still in mourning and my father in law suffered a stroke right after the funeral :(
vernaloo said…
hi haze!

naku sorry..good thing you commented in my blog, at least alam ko na new blogsite mo. Anyway somebody did message me also asking what time it was. Weird question but ewan ko ba sinagot ko rin at di man lang ako nagtaka. But good thing I was busy with work at di ko agad nasagot iba nyang mga tanong kaya siguro na bore sa kaka-antay. Siguro naisip nya na wala akong kuwentang biktima or something.

Anyway I hope you are okay now. We really need to be careful.
Francesca said…
Oks na hopefully ang lahat haze.

Lola fran...
Anonymous said…
Hi Haze,

Sorry this is so late. I wanted to thank you for sending the warning. The day after, I got an email from the hacker with your yahoo account with the title "This is urgent!" Luckily, my hotmail placed it in the junk file so I didn't have to bother with it at all.

P.S. I haven't visited for so long I have so much to catch up on!
haze said…
TO EVERYONE : Sometimes internet is terrifying because we don't know what's going on behind. Especially, if we are not an expert when it comes to viruses. I think we really need to put a good anti-virus and do scanning more often.

I hope that my experience has helped you in a way. If someone sends you a file just ask them for a link it is safer. If it's a pictures ask them to attach the image so then you will not be surprised of what's inside the file. Let's us all be prudent !
David B Katague said…
Very informative posts on Hackers. Thanks for sharing. I have not the vaguest idea, this could happen in the Philippines
Jo Travels said…
Wow how creative and resourceful this hacker is. Good that you were able to do some damage repair and contacted everyone in your list.

I just don't understand the deal about Globe prepaid cards?

Anyway, this is a late response, have fun in the Philippines ;-)