A NOTE TO THOSE OF US WITH MONEY ONLINE

[smellmuth]

there has been a recent rash of accounts hacked into (see EMcWilliams and today Skipolo).

SECURE YOUR SYSTEMS. DO NOT ACCEPT FILES FROM STRANGERS. DO NOT OPEN EXE'S. THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. THERE IS LITTLE TO NO RECOURSE.

i know most of us are sitting here thinking 'well i wont be that stupid. i wont open the file. i wont make the transfer.'

both EMcWilliams and Skipolo are smart people. this isnt a case of someone being an idiot and getting their just desserts. The scammers are smart, and they know what they are doing. protect yourself.

[PBJaxx]

Any idea what happened to these guys? What should we look out for? I have a virus scanner, and I use Spybot S&D now, but what else should I do?

[bigbluffer79]

ty for the heads up bro!

[deaders]

Yeah its pretty worrying hey... I run spybot regularly and have a wireless router/firewall that should be enough right?

[Jay Riall]

MY computer has a few viruses and spyware programmes on it right now. What are the best (pref. free? programmes to clean it up and keep it clean?

[deaders]

Jay just google "spybot" - its the best anti spyware program

[sawseech]

is there any information available as to the specific nature of the vulnerabilities?

[Jigsaws]

I have a good side effect of using Linux. I run XP under VMWare, and that XP installation is used only for poker software. No AIM, MSN or any other programs. VMWare is also available for Windows, so if you're really concerned, this might be a solution.

[Jay Riall]

Cheers deaders.

[smellmuth]

[ QUOTE ]
Any idea what happened to these guys? What should we look out for? I have a virus scanner, and I use Spybot S&D now, but what else should I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

im not sure what happened to EMcWilliams exactly, but somehow his system was compromised, his passwords were stolen and used to liquidate poker accounts, neteller, and whats worse, money was EFT'ed from his bank account to his neteller and then dumped off somewhere.

Skipolo accidentally opened and EXE file sent to him via AIM. His passwords were then stolen, and over 25,000$ was then taken from his neteller to stars, where it was 'traded' to a respected HSNL player for clean money on full tilt. The scammer also commandeered his AIM, allowing him to pose convincingly as the real Skipolo in asking for the swap. (note that the player who did the swap was duped himself into believing he was transferring to skipolo on FTP, and was in no way part of the scam.)

There are a few things you can do to protect yourself:

it seems obvious, but do not open EXE's or really anything for that matter from sources you do not have absolute 100% faith in. do not accept files. make SURE files you are opening, downloading, accepting, etc are exactly what they are purported to be.

Get a good antivirus program. get keepass. do not autosave passwords.

do not leave your computer running unattended. this is a big one. a lot of us (like me) have torrents going and we leave our systems running while we sleep. this is perfect for a hacker. if you are going to do this get a dedicated machine for poker. i know this is financially unfeasible for a lot of us but if you are going to leave your computer running you need to double up on your efforts to secure your system which means being even more cautious with accepting files and ensuring you have a suite of anti-virus, firewall, and anti-trojan software running.

do not keep excess cash online. i am guilty of this. i have a ridiculous amount of money sitting in neteller. i am moving it all off tomorrow.

If you can, instruct neteller to set your imcoming EFT limit to 1$. If you must have quick EFT access, a good idea is to open a segregated bank account and use that one as the one neteller is linked to.

there are some good threads around somewhere about securing your system, i will try to find the links.