Caution..Identity theft. You may want to read this.

antlerman · Jan 19, 2010

I had my ISP address stolen.

Here's the story. Last week Wednesday I got a pm from someone called Boy Dog on here asking about chemicals for autotanners. At that time this person had 0 posts. This threw a red flag at me, so I PMed PatrickJ and asked him if I was safe to answer the pm. He said he thought I was, so I responded. (However, I kept asking myself why this person would be asking ME this question. I don't have an autotanner and I'm seldom in the tanning section.) The next day, Thursday, I try to go to my on-line banking website and a window pops up called VISA Security Check. It would not let me into my accounts until I would fill out the asked for information. It wanted my ss #, credit card #, Security code #, passwords and ect. Well, this threw yet another RED flag, so I called my bank. They said no, that's not us. We would NEVER ask for your SS#. So as a precautionary measure the bank froze my account. I get ahold of Norton and they run a systems check for me and found some problems. Said IT came from a community chat forum. My daughter has a facebook account, but hadn't been on it in forever. The only other community forum we use is taxidermy.net. So, I called Ken Edwards. He said No, I couldn't get a virus UNLESS I clicked on a link. Ok, fast forward to today. Tuesday. Norton has been working on my computer since last week Thursday. Here's what they found. It was a trojan that had created 111 different security threats thru 38 ports. How did that happen I ask. He said, someone stole your ISP address and had access to all your identities and pass words. So the process begins and I have to change all my identities and passwords. I was told that anytime you respond to someone, with the right knowhow, they can find out almost anything about you including information that is private. Obviously the reason for the pop up window asking for my SS# was for total access to my identity. THANK GOD I didn't answer the questions and called my bank instead. NOW, I'm NOT saying this person is the one who did this. I am however saying that it happened. It cost me almost 200.00 to get this fixed, but it could have been ALOT worse. So, be careful and realize that the computer, although a great tool, could also be the way someone ruins your life. I don't know enough about computers to FIX these problems so the best policy I can come up with is to avoid them and if anything doesn't seem right, don't take the chance. I looked today and Boy Dog has 3 posts. In the future I will not be responding to any pm's if I don't know you or if you don't have a history here. Just thought EVERYONE should know that even though you have a anti virus protection program, spyware and ect. That doesn't stop someone from stealing your ISP address and your identity. PEACE TIM

RDA · Jan 19, 2010

you can also throw in photobucket TIm!!! I have a virus that was loaded through photo bucket- its easy to hack into those accounts which is how I got the virus Norton defended, but if i had clicked on the wrong picture id be out another hard drive!!!!!!!!! I will no longer use photo bucket or any other photo sharing sights now......

Patrick J · Jan 19, 2010

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
I don't see where this guy can get an ip number from a pm sent through here unless when the notice comes up in his email he is able to extract it somehow. Have you replied to or sent any actual emails to someone you don't know lately?
The way I understand it from those scambaiter and 419 eater websites is a person has to attack a virus or tracking cookie to a link wether it be an outside link posted here or just an attachment to an email.
I a sense what happens is they attach their ip identity to your ip and piggy back using it to hide their position. I get those emails all the time telling me I have a security problem with credit cards, photobucket.............yahoo is a good one......saying I have to update my files or it will be suspended.
I don't care where an email comes from telling you to give out personal information.......NEVER GIVE THAT OUT!! Especially account info and most of all social security numbers.

I figured when you pm'd me last week that Ken's computer system would have the best malware, spam, virus, etc capabilities possible. Just one more reason I weed out the bad apples as much as possible.....to run them off. Sure I am wrong sometimes but I just consider those collateral damages as in the end we get the results we want.........LESS SCAMMERS

Patrick J · Jan 19, 2010

I just realized something.........HEY TIM.....Stay off of the porn sites...LOL

Joey Arender · Jan 19, 2010

Patrick J said:

I just realized something.........HEY TIM.....Stay off of the porn sites...LOL
Click to expand...

hmmmmmmmm now I get why he uses antlerman...LOL

antlerman · Jan 19, 2010

Patrick J said:

I just realized something.........HEY TIM.....Stay off of the porn sites...LOL
Click to expand...

Aaa, you know, come to think of it, Jason, Michael, Voyer and mk were ALL here at the same time, and had free access to the puters. UT OH!!!!!! OK, I think I can narrow this down a bit..............MIDGIT PORN.........MATHEW, I'm gonna kick you A$$!!!!!

Becky P · Jan 20, 2010

There was some kind of "accidental" security breach with Facebook. It was in the local paper a couple of days ago but I never finished reading it (MIL kept interrupting and I never got back to it). Maybe you can do a search and find out what it was about - I'm sure she has burned the paper by now.

Ken Edwards · Jan 20, 2010

Just to clarify, there is NO danger of identity theft from using the Taxidermy.Net Personal Message system. The sender and receiver of a Personal Message cannot access any more information about you than what you choose to disclose in your public profile. Your IP remains private. If you choose to hide your email from the public in your profile settings, even your email is not disclosed. The Private Message system is actually a much more secure form of communicating with strangers than email.

antlerman · Jan 20, 2010

Thanks Ken. That does give me some peace of mind. I am TOTALLY computer illiterate and since I am I get nervous about things I am unsure of. I have no real way of knowing where or how it happened, just that it did. He said something also about my router. Understand this man was in India, spoke a very dialected english, but we muddled thru it, and everything seems fine now. The biggest thing he cautioned me about was opening links. Funny how it effected only the one computer but not the other when they go thru the same router. Again, I am totally stupid when it comes to these things. Hence my caution, and word of caution to others. It's comforting to know that taxi.net is a safe place to play. I love this place and would be totally lost without it. Again, Thanks Ken for providing us a safe playground. I know I speak for all when I say we love you for providing this site.

mtnwizzard · Jan 25, 2010

I had the same thing happen to me Tim.but not on here.I tried to log onto ebay one morning and another page popped up.It had ebays logo on it and looked authentic.But they wanted info like.SSN,bank name,account number,and any pin numbers i had.Now only an idiot would give all that up over the internet.I contacted ebay and they just told me not to give that info up...Well DUH!!! I knew that.they weren't much help

Dropjhook.com · Apr 26, 2010

evrey pc has ports that stay open & is open for hackers but they need your ip address. if your kids play pc games over the net that could be the cause. game servers need your ip address to connect to others

bowhunterj · Apr 26, 2010

Tim, I too, have had problems on here, just a few miniuts ago my spyware bloked taxi net. and said that it contains some malicious virus that can get your personal info! and last week i had to cancel my check card that my bank had found to have been used without me knowing , thank god they caught it b-4 they got too much. it looked like they just tryed to see if it was a good card! my bank said they do that ,then sell the card to real thieves. I have let Ken know of this. no responce yet. hope this does not turn into something ugly!!

antlertiques · Apr 27, 2010

I also have had to cancel 2 different check cards from two different banks in the last week. One used it in Hawaii for 75 cents the other was used in Australia for $45. The one card I only used it once on-line.( Van Dyke Taxidermy Supply) I don't have the number stored anywhere on my computer but they got it anyhow. My anti spyware has been blocking trojans while I am connected to taxi.net. I hope it is not related but I am concerned.

Ken Edwards · Apr 27, 2010

We ran several all-encompassing scans at the server level, and I am pleased to report that the Taxidermy.Net website is clean and safe. Also, all of our ad server partners have been tested and they are clean as well.

There are many malicious rogue anti-spyware virus scams out there, and some may have picked one up either through an email link or by clicking on a phishing scheme email.
Here is one that may look familiar: http://www.2-viruses.com/remove-fake-warning-this-site-has-been-reported-as-unsafe

The latest malware strategies involve making you click on a program to download. Don't do it. This can come in an email from someone who said they saw a video of you on another site, it can be an email masquerading as a message from your bank, the better business bureau, a friend, but when you visit the site in the email link, you get an alert that you need to download the latest version of some plug-in (java, windows player, etc.) to view the content. Don't do it. This is the malware entry point into your computer.

If you see unusual popups saying your computer is infected, don't click on them. Exit out of the program, or even shut your computer down with the power button if you cannot escape them normally. Do not click on anything that looks suspicious!

If you happen to see these notices while visiting the Taxidermy.Net, they did not come from our site. The only content that we could not test were the links which members have imbedded in their posts. With almost a million posts, checking every offsite link would be impossible. Although we are diligent at blocking access to proven scammers, it is possible that some dishonest member from another country could place a link inside a post which would take someone to a malicious website on the other side of the globe.

Again, we spent all day testing everything on this site, and I am pleased to report that the Taxidermy.Net website is clean and safe. You can surf here without worrying about identity theft or viruses.

antlertiques · Apr 28, 2010

Thanks Ken. Thanks for the hard work.

Bucknut · Apr 28, 2010

I never click on any of the links or ads on here and my spyware still said a trojan was caught - that was on Monday. So something is going on here.

Bruce

Kerby Ross · May 1, 2010

Yes you do.........

**The one card I only used it once on-line.( Van Dyke Taxidermy Supply) I don't have the number stored anywhere on my computer but they got it anyhow.**

Yes you do, it's called cookies. If you typed it to make an on-line transaction, then that data is stored on your computer.

LOTS of data is stored on your computer, even after you have "deleted" it or "unistalled" it. Trust me it's there.

Let's see here, every week a bank in the US somewhere has their computers hacked into, insurance companies have their computers hacked into, gov't agencies have their computers hacked into, AND THOUSANDS of individual computers are hacked into almost every day. There is no such thing as "secure on-line payment". There is always a risk.

Kerby...

Silverose01 · May 1, 2010

Ha
Well about 5 minutes ago my mom caught a pending purchase for a WoW (world of warcraft) game account on her card
Do not know how it got on there since both me and my brother dislike any games like that and would not use our moms card for purchases anyways
We have to shut down the card and get a new one now
Identity theft is everywhere!

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Caution..Identity theft. You may want to read this.

antlerman NTA Life Member #0118

RDA Well-Known Member

Patrick J You've got me mistaken for someone else

Patrick J You've got me mistaken for someone else

Joey Arender big mouth alert

antlerman NTA Life Member #0118

Becky P One must believe the glass is half full.

Ken Edwards Taxidermy.Net Administrator Staff Member

antlerman NTA Life Member #0118

mtnwizzard New Member

Dropjhook.com New Member

bowhunterj Member

antlertiques New Member

Ken Edwards Taxidermy.Net Administrator Staff Member

antlertiques New Member

Bucknut 176 5/8

Kerby Ross KSU - Class of '83; U.S. Army - Infantry (83-92)

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