Nearly got scammed on here!!

[RikiB]

Yeah I do similar and change a part of the password but thinking I should let my iPhone choose a stronger password

[RikiB]

Yeah they know what they’re doing the scumbags.

im going around now to websites I use and letting Apple choose strong passwords

Edited June 6, 2023 by RikiB
I never use it for fear that that can be hacked in the past but seems secure.

[tegs07]

11 minutes ago, RikiB said:

Yeah I do similar and change a part of the password but thinking I should let my iPhone choose a stronger password

The only downer to this is a lot of websites have a criteria that is pretty weak (8 characters, a number, specific special characters) and reject the stronger password. Same with some of the password managers which can also be a little too vigorous in jumping in and trying to “help” with creating or changing passwords. I use them but can be more hinderance than help to elderly parents!

 

MFA (2FA) is the best solution wherever possible.

Edited June 6, 2023 by tegs07

[RikiB]

So this person who sent money is one us yeah? How much did he send and can he get it back at all?

Happy to contribute to get some of his money back poor guy. Was nearly me if it wasn’t for the real account holder messaging me.

[chaypup]

3 minutes ago, RikiB said:

So this person who sent money is one us yeah? How much did he send and can he get it back at all?

Happy to contribute to get some of his money back poor guy. Was nearly me if it wasn’t for the real account holder messaging me.

 

Waiting for confirmation but I think @Basstardz sent money. I would assume if they sent via F&F it isn't recoverable. 

[oldslapper]

I had a message yesterday in my associated basschat email account telling me I had been locked out of basschat temporarily due to site issues. It asked me to log in again through the link provided in the email. 
The email had my user name.

However, I didn’t follow through with the instructions, but quickly looked on here to find I wasn’t locked out. 
I never follow links in emails unless it’s actioning a request I’ve made on a site I know and trust.

The scum are sniffing around. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by oldslapper

[RikiB]

Hopefully he’ll come on here. 

[Woodinblack]

42 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

I had a message yesterday in my associated basschat email account telling me I had been locked out of basschat temporarily due to site issues. It asked me to log in again through the link provided in the email. 
The email had my user name.

However, I didn’t follow through with the instructions, but quickly looked on here to find I wasn’t locked out. 

 

That was a genuine mail - you were locked out of your account last night because the same guy had tried to log into your account multiple times, but had failed and it locked the account. Later on, after the person had moved on, I unlocked your account (and another) as I knew it wasn't you trying and they had given up on those accounts

 

But genuinely, I never follow a link in an email anyway, I always check first.

[Basstardz]

I ve sent yesterday 450gbp to à nasty person

[Crusoe]

12 minutes ago, Basstardz said:

I ve sent yesterday 450gbp to à nasty person

Oh no! No chance of getting it back, I suppose? ☹️

[PaulWarning]

2 hours ago, JoeEvans said:

Almost all account hacking happens because someone uses the same username and password across numerous websites. Eventually they get lured to sign in to a fake site (phishing) or they sign into a real site with poor back-end security, and their username and password get on a list and sold to other scammers. The end-user scammer hunts around to find the sites that the victim uses, trying their username and password until they get into a useful account like Basschat.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to use a different password on every single website or service. We're told that passwords need to be hugely long and complicated which no doubt helps, but it's vanishingly rare for a scammer to try and guess a password. Even a password that's a couple of letters or digits different to another one that you use will provide hugely improved protection

 

yep, I used to use the same password, not anymore, I got an email from someone which said they'd got access to my account and threatening to expose my activities to all my contacts unless I paid them $400 (it always seems to be dollars), they quoted the password, trouble is, thankfully, I don't use it anymore

[Waddo Soqable]

3 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

yep, I used to use the same password, not anymore, I got an email from someone which said they'd got access to my account and threatening to expose my activities to all my contacts unless I paid them $400 (it always seems to be dollars), they quoted the password, trouble is, thankfully, I don't use it anymore

A bizarre variant on that I've heard of ( not had one myself but know someone who did ) is the.... "we've got video of you "pleasuring yourself " in front of your computer screen and unless you pay 400 bucks.... etc etc

[Basstardz]

17 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

Oh non! Aucune chance de le récupérer, je suppose ? ☹️

No it's lost

[oldslapper]

52 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

That was a genuine mail - you were locked out of your account last night because the same guy had tried to log into your account multiple times, but had failed and it locked the account. Later on, after the person had moved on, I unlocked your account (and another) as I knew it wasn't you trying and they had given up on those accounts

 

But genuinely, I never follow a link in an email anyway, I always check first.

Thanks @Woodinblack

I genuinely thought it was a scam email. 
Glad you guys are on this stuff. 🙏

[PaulWarning]

31 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

A bizarre variant on that I've heard of ( not had one myself but know someone who did ) is the.... "we've got video of you "pleasuring yourself " in front of your computer screen and unless you pay 400 bucks.... etc etc

that was the gist of the one I got as well, I knew it wasn't true, I've got a cover over my camera lens 🤣

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, tegs07 said:

This. A password manager is the simplest solution. If you are really old school and have to write things down try a simple option. Choose a few words that make sense to you eg if your born in June and drive a blue Golf then JuneblueGolf could be a core part of your password that you remember. Each subsequent site could be appended with a unique new part which is written down:

Basschat =bC1)

 

so password is JuneblueGolfbC1)

 

and so on.

 

Not perfect but better than repeating the same password and easy to remember and keep track of.

 

Even if you are phished and a hacker gets the core password they are unlikely to spend any time even trying to guess or brute force the unique 3 or 4 characters of a different site. 

Adding a space into your passwords makes them immensely more difficult to guess as well. So in the example above, making it June blue Golf bC1 is making it a lot more complicated. Harder to remember too, so the password manager idea is also worthwhile. You can also use the password manager to generate random passwords of whatever length you choose so you can use different passwords for every site. I use Bitwarden for my password manager, having left LastPass following their purchase by a company with less than stellar data protection practices, and would recommend it to anyone looking.

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, tegs07 said:

The only downer to this is a lot of websites have a criteria that is pretty weak (8 characters, a number, specific special characters) and reject the stronger password. Same with some of the password managers which can also be a little too vigorous in jumping in and trying to “help” with creating or changing passwords. I use them but can be more hinderance than help to elderly parents!

 

MFA (2FA) is the best solution wherever possible.

If you get the option with MFA use a code generator like Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, etc. as this is more secure than getting a text message (I forget the reason why though). 2FA Directory has a list of sites you can enable MFA on. Yes it's a pain to do, but that's kind of the point, and better a few extra seconds for you to enter a code than have your data compromised!

[NikNik]

7 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Something similar has been happening on the Facebook marketplace recently too.

Like the guy I caught selling a Steinway baby grand from a completed ebay auction, complete with same photos.

[Kev]

1 hour ago, Basstardz said:

No it's lost

Hopefully if you contact Paypal or your bank and explain what happened, they may be able to do something for you.

 

I know its already been said countless times before, but please, please don't use Paypal F&F to buy anything on here unless they ARE your friend or family and you know its them.  Insist on normal goods/services paypal, and if the fee is an issue for the seller, offer to pay the extra 3% to cover it (and yourself).  If they still don't agree to use it, and cash on collection isn't an option, run a mile.

 

Thanks to those who reported the threads and alerted the team, we acted as quickly as we could.  An event like this is VERY rare on Basschat but everyone needs to remain vigilant, especially when it comes to sending money to people you don't know in an insecure way.  And yeah, if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't.

[Cairobill]

Not sure if anyone else experienced this but I had two automated messages last night from [email protected] saying several attempts had been made to access my account. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Cairobill

[lidl e]

Our of curiosity, did the scammer create new ads or just change the paypal address for ads that have been up?

[TheGreek]

Was any of this connected to the 5 ads for cheap holiday stuff yesterday?

 

They looked really suspicious. 

[daveybass]

11 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Our of curiosity, did the scammer create new ads or just change the paypal address for ads that have been up?

New ads and different paypal addresses as well, sounds a tad more intricate than normal.

[Woodinblack]

44 minutes ago, Cairobill said:

Not sure if anyone else experienced this but I had two automated messages last night from [email protected] saying several attempts had been made to access my account. 

 

You were the other account that got locked that I alluded to up the thread a bit (didn't want to name names!)

 

18 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Was any of this connected to the 5 ads for cheap holiday stuff yesterday?

 

They looked really suspicious. 

 

No, that is a different sort of thing, we have had a couple of those recently, that was just an attempt at spam, this was something by a person more targeted and specific.

 

Sadly if he has been successful in some way I would suspect that he may be back to try again. 

If people can be vigilant, and report anything suspicious,  and avoid any adverts insisting on F&F PayPal that they don't know, this would help

[daveybass]

Listen,

if all else fails for @Basstardz, would there be an option where maybe people could donate some cash to maybe cover the loss.

 

It appears I've gone all Sir Bob!