Off Topic - Hackers

**Baxter** · 09-08-2019 16:32

Not sure I should have graced that h word with a capital letter but ..... I have been getting emails from a female name saying Hi Gary just to let you know your accounts have been hacked and your password is @#$%#@! I have been looking at your accounts. The password although I have not typed it in this message is a correct one for some of my many internet web sites by the way.

I always delete them without reading passed this preview window but I am a bit concerned. Do the bottom dwellers rely on you responding to confirm their data or are they genuine security breaches? Or, are they attempts to get you to panic and buy some "foolproof" data security program? Anyone else had this experience?

**ShadowDragon** · 09-08-2019 18:51

Could be any or all of those. The number of data breaches of even reputable companies is astonishingly high - and getting higher. You should never use the same password on different sites. The best option is a password manager that creates unique, hard to guess passwords for each site. That way if one site has a data beach and the criminals (these days they are indeed mostly professional criminals and not the amateur hackers of the past) get your password for that site it won’t be useful for other sites.

**Rebel** · 09-09-2019 02:40

I know what you mean Gary. There are so many of these scam emails flooding the airways these days. Some of them are very convincing as well. I think I get 3 or 4 each week. It must be very worrying if somebody has your password though. I have had my ebay page and my Facebook pages hacked causing all sorts of problems.

**ShadowDragon** · 09-09-2019 09:04

Gary, the reason I don't think this is the 'run of the mill spam email with a false claim and just click on this link to fix it' (NOT), is that they have your password. Unless it's a password like '123456' then you can pretty much assumed that one of your accounts was compromised. Typically companies aren't even aware that they've had a data breach - for months, years and some never find out; and if they do know that've had a data breach the standard practice is to 'say nothing' until someone else finds out and publishes that information. From your post it appears that the person hasn't told you which account and neither does it appear that she's from a reputable security company like McAfee, which suggests that it's a phishing email to collect more information from you such as other accounts, etc. or perhaps even to install malware on your computer.

The safest thing for you to do is to change all the passwords of your accounts with that password to unique passwords - if you haven't done so already - and delete the emails; I doubt the person charitably has your best interests in mind. Do seriously consider a password manager like Dashlane. It's free for up to 50 passwords I think, but even the monthly fee is reasonable. Relying on the security of companies / websites is no security at all these days.