Ever heard of a scam program called Neofrenzy?

[greeniebone]

Here's the situation: my best friend on Neo, also the leader of the large and active Guild I'm in, got a Neomail from one of our former members (not a friend) asking her to check out a new game called Neofrenzy. I guess my friend foolishly checked out this link, and something automatically started downloading to her computer. Within minutes, all of her accounts had been hacked into, and the Guild is now in the hands of this maniac. We think we know who the person is, but obviously have no specific proof.

Yes, it was dumb of her to follow some random link from a person we are not friendly with, and who in fact we suspect hacked the Guild once in the past. But is it possible that this program was a hack program that allowed this person access to all of my friend's accounts and passwords, and even her AIM accounts? She swears her passwords were gibberish, and she never gave them to anyone.

So.....anyone heard of this Neofrenzy? All I can find out so far is that it's also the name of a website, which obviously has nothing to do with this specific problem.

[shapu]

With passwords, and grabbers, it doesn't matter if it was gibberish or not. What happened is that the program found the cookies that were stored on your friend's computer for neopets, and probably as well as every other website he or she had visited, and then transferred them to the hacker/scammer's own storage system.

Then it's a simple matter of that person removing his or her own cookies, and replacing them with the ones that were uploaded from your friend's computer. At that point, the neopets server thinks the bad guy is actually your friend, and he or she is automatically logged on.

Not much you can do. Suggest to your friend that he or she change all of his or her passwords, on every website that could be a target. And start using contact forms in an attempt to get the account back and password reset.

[Black_Panther]

i don't trust outside links unless i heard of the game or program before,heck in most cases i don't bother with attachments either unless there from someone i know... besides changing all the passwords you might wanna have your friend clean out their system like temp files and such just to be safe and maybe run a few programs to get rid of other crap

[Morningstar]

My husband recently was the victim of credit card fraud after using his credit card online. A bogus charge from Pluto Data appeared on his credit card statement. Obviously from a cookie grabber that somehow got on his computer. Very scary.

So, I never go to an outside link without clearing my cookies and temp files first--from both IE and Firefox. Then after going to that site, I once again clear my cookies and temp files. I don't do this for every site I check out, but pretty much anything that isn't a big name company.

And, I never, ever click on a email attachment or zip file, unless I know the person sending it.

And, I have McAfee on my computer to alert me to viruses. But, to find spyware and adware, I run Pest Patrol and Ad-Aware (Lavasoft) every day. And a full McAfee scan about once a week.

Some people might call me a bit paranoid, but it never hurts to be too careful.

[®ºº]

My husband recently was the victim of credit card fraud after using his credit card online.

Some people might call me a bit paranoid, but it never hurts to be too careful.

Too right, I was a victim. Someone took £8,000 from my bank account this way.

Now I make sure I use a different browser, anti-virus check my computer, do a spyware check and also a CWS search daily...

Also I'm using Firefox and I've configured it to delete cookies and temp files once I close the browser.


You really cannot be too careful. At least with Neopets it's not big a deal, but still a bad experience. Especially if you've built the guild up, earned a lot of NP and done alot for your Neopet too..

[Morningstar]

My husband recently was the victim of credit card fraud after using his credit card online.

Some people might call me a bit paranoid, but it never hurts to be too careful.

Too right, I was a victim. Someone took £8,000 from my bank account this way.

Now I make sure I use a different browser, anti-virus check my computer, do a spyware check and also a CWS search daily...

Also I'm using Firefox and I've configured it to delete cookies and temp files once I close the browser.


You really cannot be too careful. At least with Neopets it's not big a deal, but still a bad experience. Especially if you've built the guild up, earned a lot of NP and done alot for your Neopet too..

Ouch. That is a lot of money to lose.

I have found that it is best to never, ever use a debit card on the internet. Because they can take your whole checking account. And, you don't have too much protection from your bank if it is used fraudently. At least with a credit card, you are only liable for the first $50 (in the US, anyway). And, we have gotten a second credit card. With a very low limit. It is the only card we use on the internet. That way, if it is "compromised," we aren't out too much and, even if that card is suspended indefinitely (which happened in my husband's case), we still have the other credit card to use for daily life purchases.