Hacking scam?

Minera

Hi am not very good at techy stuff but am on a social site and there was a post saying someone had got an apple air computer if you click the computer you go into your yahoo and there is a MSG saying that if you accept the laptop you agree to them accessing all your details so I came out without clicking on the laptop offer and posted that it was a scam. My Q is will I already be hacked and if so what can I do, how do I know. Also has the other person Bern hacked or have they just used her name to lull us in?

forgotmyname

Your firewall and AV should have flagged it up and as long as youdid not click allow it to infect my pc
then you are fine.

Minera

Thank you, am using my iPhone but think it's got security on it, my daughter would have warned me otherwise, so has the other person been hacked or do they somehow just get her name and post a dummy MSG? Have alerted her and others on the soc network site about it. Thank you so much am an oldie, home alone with technology and no kids here to ask

j_bailey_3

Anti-viruses and firewalls only protect you from a percentage of viruses and infections. It sounds like a common attack so i would say most likely your av & firewall would of stopped it. But you mention you were on a social networking site, (was it facebook) most spam on facebook is designed to steal the information on your social profile not actually on your computer. For example your phone number, name, postcode and then is sold on to cold callers and spammers. I guess the same thing could be done on other social websites too.

kwikbreaks

From your description it isn't even possible to be sure that there was a scam. It could just be paranoia. Very few scammers ask for your agreement to access your personal data.

mr_fishbulb

Lots of things like this on Facebook at the moment. It works like this:

One of your friends will put up a post saying "OMG This is so funny - Justin Bieber falls over. LOL!!!!1" or something like that.
You click on the link to watch the video and it comes up saying "Justin Bieber video is requesting permission to access your data and post on your wall".
You don''t care about the warning but just want to see the video so you click OK.
You then get told you need to fill in an online survey whilst in the background, the app you just gave permission to do what it likes, is posting on your wall "OMG This is so funny - Justin Bieber falls over. LOL!!!!1"
You fill in the survey, someone else gets paid for it and you end up with no video and all your friends who can see your wall thinking you're an idiot.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/01/06/my-1st-sttus-scam-hits-facebook-users-hard-spreads-virally/

kwikbreaks

I'm glad I don't bother with facebook.....