Dowload Warning - But It Was Not Me !!

LinW13

My ISP sent me an email to warn me that I had downloaded some copyrighted material. So I phoned them up about it.

Seems like Nintendo had reported me for downloading one of their games.

They gave me the date and time I was supposed to have done this. It was the day before. All I remember doing was checking my emails and having a look around eBay. I know how to download, and had definitely not been downloading that particular day. But I do remember noticing that my connection was almost at a standstill.

They said that my usage for that day was higher than usual. And they asked me if I used a wireless router/modem. I use a wired USB modem, and I am the only person who has access to my computer. I've got up-to-date AV and Firewall software.

I've been with my ISP for a few years now, and they heard what I had to say and removed the warning.

But... some hacker has nicked some of my band width. Worse than that, I might end up losing my account if this keeps on happening.

Anybody got any experience or information on how I can protect myself from this?

Lin

neildwattam

If you had wireless router then i would of almost certainly said someone was accessing your wifi without you knowing and would explain why you noticed an almost stand still with your internet connection that day because someone else was hammering it.

However if you have a USB modem i cant see how anyone else would have had access to your internet connection. Even if you took the extreme case here and said a hacker was using your computer as a BOT, to do his donkey work for him/her you would then have to address the issue of why would they do this for downloading games.

While your connection would download the game relitivly fast on a broadband connection, your upload connection is only a fraction of the speed and would take forever to relay the data back. So i would more or less rule that out.

Are you running any P2P software at all? do you do downloads of any nature what so ever?

If i was you i would play safe, wipe your computer and reinstall from scratch to be on the safe side.

Out of interest does anyone else use the internet in your house hold? and if so how do they go about doing so with you being on a USB modem.

A last min thought, check your computer to make sure its not setup for internet sharing!!! this could explain it.

Jemma-T

Either you or your ISP is talking nonsense.

Which ISP is this?