Email attempt hack

Blueyez

somebody tried to hack my email around midnight (7:01 Western Indonesia time)- google gave the location as Indonesia. thankfully it was blocked and my account and relatives accounts who are listed as backups were notified. Twice before Christmas my Facebook was targeted (location given was somewhere in Essex) and my smartphone was targeted. the email attack is worrying as I have documents sent by my doctor on there (I miss the days of good old letters via post)
I will set up a different email and by the end of the summer will no longer have a smartphone anyway ( finally getting rid of EE! and going back to basic Pay as you go)


but these problems seem to be on the increase and it's worrying. Not sure if it's a side effect of comping or I just have really bad luck
anyone else having security issues ?

hazyjo

Been comping for 6 years and (touch wood) no probs so far.

Usually, AFAIK, it's just bad luck... unless you've been entering some dodgy comps! Do you mainly just enter from here?

Jx

libra10

I've had a couple of issues recently.


Several days ago my GMail account was accessed by someone in Oxford, and GMail sent out a text and email to other account.


Sorted that, but for a while malware called Flash Pro, System Healer, Arcade Twist and something else kept being downloaded on my PC. Each time I uninstalled from the control panel.


Running Defender and a firewall, but it was relentless.


Then a couple of weeks ago, more problems - lots of pages unable to be dispayed, reading forums at MSE, lots of images wouldn't display, just showing crosses. Lots of page time outs.


I have reinstalled the OP (Windows 10) 3 times, and took my PC into KnowHow at Curry's last week, but the PC worked perfectly while there.


Not sure what is going on, but never experienced so many tech problems before!

Blueyez

hazyjo wrote: »

Been comping for 6 years and (touch wood) no probs so far.

Usually, AFAIK, it's just bad luck... unless you've been entering some dodgy comps! Do you mainly just enter from here?

Jx

yes just from here and not that many as of late.

Blueyez

libra10 wrote: »

I've had a couple of issues recently.


Several days ago my GMail account was accessed by someone in Oxford, and GMail sent out a text and email to other account.


Sorted that, but for a while malware called Flash Pro, System Healer, Arcade Twist and something else kept being downloaded on my PC. Each time I uninstalled from the control panel.


Running Defender and a firewall, but it was relentless.


Then a couple of weeks ago, more problems - lots of pages unable to be dispayed, reading forums at MSE, lots of images wouldn't display, just showing crosses. Lots of page time outs.


I have reinstalled the OP (Windows 10) 3 times, and took my PC into KnowHow at Curry's last week, but the PC worked perfectly while there.


Not sure what is going on, but never experienced so many tech problems before!

Oh good lord! :eek:

peachyp

Before Christmas someone accessed my hotmail, gmail and dropbox on the same day which was very worrying considering my payslips were stored electronically on one of them.

Changed passwords to all of them the next day (different for each one) and have been keeping an eye on my credit report ever since.

Nothing untoward has happened (yet!).

I only enter competitions from here.

UltraChris

libra10 - download Malwarebytes (free) and run a full scan of your system to see what it finds. It's a pretty good tool and I've sorted out a fair few PCs in the past with it.

libra10

Thanks UltraChris, will have a look in the next couple of days. I feel it could take some time and I'm not very techie!

Tracker_Shaun

As above the free version of Malwarebytes is awesome and will clear almost 99% of horrid stuff from your pc.
Always have a memorable but looooong password on your email account as it usually holds everything.
I recently started using KeePass, its brilliant and I never have to remember passwords again or repeat passwords (a big no no) anywhere, except the really good one for KeePass.