Seriously weird hacking potential problem

olias

Hi all,
I have several times booked a gite in france through a national reputable website called gites-de-france. The booking involved giving my email address for confirmatioms of booking etc.

Here comes the weird bit.....

I have today received 4 identical emails from the president of gites de france wishing me a happy new year. Nothing strange so far, companies often mistakenly send out multiple emails. The seriously weird bit is that each of the emails was accompanied by an attachment which was a photo of my wedding in Australia in 2005, different pic attached to each email, and the final one a pic of our car we had in australia!?!?!?

Now these pics are on my tablet. They are not and never have been on the internet or in any sort of cloud storage.

How could they have got them? Why?

Actually, i cannot see that this has come from gites de france, why would they do this and how would they even know what the pics were? Equally, why would a hacker hack into my computer, staeal these pics and then intercept an email and attach them to it. I am really freaked out. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks

Olias

debitcardmayhem

Do you use your tablet on free wifi or hotel wifi ? Does the tablet automatically save/sync? The attack vectors are endless, I get loads of spams purporting from my neighbours/friends who have very weak passwords and use free wifi because they are "money savers"

olias

Nope, my own wifi, this is in France where their wifi passwords are about 50 characters long too. The question is, why hack a computer, steal a 10 year old photo, and attach it to a legitimate incoming email?

Olias

debitcardmayhem

olias wrote: »

Nope, my own wifi, this is in France where their wifi passwords are about 50 characters long too. The question is, why hack a computer, steal a 10 year old photo, and attach it to a legitimate incoming email?

Olias

OK then lets try have you ever sent that photo to any of your friends/family/acquaintances?, if no then call inspector clouseau/maigret/ or a mystic.

Did these emails give you any clues that they were really from the git from france? Check the mail headers and see exactly where they came from , see if it confirms that they are from whom they say they are.

Basically your decription leaves everyone to make speculative guesses. Perhaps you could find out a real address for the guys at the Gite site and forward one of them to them for comment.
"gallic shrug" c'est ne pas nous monsieur ...will be the response

paddyrg

Bizarre, I wonder if the fault is actually in your device, and if the pictures never left it? Maybe something else is causing the mail to show 4 times, and for some reason showing the wrong photo? Can you check on a desktop?

Jivesinger

Could the emails be containing a link to a filename which exists on both your computer and the one sending the email?

For instance:
c:\temp\image001.jpg
On the sending computer this might be a picture of a gite, on your computer it's a wedding photo.

I would try and look at the email using an html editor (assuming it's HTML format email) and see if there are any links in there.

GunJack

another possibility is that you have installed an app which requires access to most of the info on your tablet, and this has been compromised. Why on earth most apps need access to stuff on your device is just shocking....

buglawton

It would be hugely helpful if you mentioned what brand of tablet (Android, IOS or Windows type? Which version of Android/IOS etc?)

Anyway, Android is arguably the least secure at the moment, have you seen this?

"Have ... Android device? You've got five new gaping holes"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/04/android_january_fixes/

Cycrow

GunJack wrote: »

another possibility is that you have installed an app which requires access to most of the info on your tablet, and this has been compromised. Why on earth most apps need access to stuff on your device is just shocking....

If its Android its not surprising, Apps need file system access to be able to write any files, which includes files included in the app itself. Theres no way of splitting them, so its either all or nothing

HappySeagull

GunJack wrote: »

another possibility is that you have installed an app which requires access to most of the info on your tablet, and this has been compromised. Why on earth most apps need access to stuff on your device is just shocking....

It is shocking. Why does Adobe's Acrobat Reader need to access the camera on my tablet?

Exile_geordie

HappySeagull wrote: »

It is shocking. Why does Adobe's Acrobat Reader need to access the camera on my tablet?

To automatically record when you visit the circus?