My Paypal Account Has Been Hacked - Ggggrrrrr

[thecatspjs]

Dear oh dear, I was quite bored tonight and procrastinating about listing .....  now my night just got interesting

Two failed attempts at credit card transfers this morning.

One for around $100 the other closer to $200

Lucky I keep no dosh in Paypal ever

Lucky I link Paypal to a Visa Debit Card that I use ONLY to draw from straight after I buy something

Lucky I have a bank stop on any funds being drawn from my linked bank account

I will ring Paypal in the morning and see what the go is . 

Running computer scans now.

The details appear as charge from credit card - only details are This transaction will appear on your statement as "PAYPAL *DENDYFAJARN".

[cmcoins2000]

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@cq_tech wrote:
You're not being a pain at all greencat, and I understand exactly what you mean, but surely a random password cracking program would have to very lucky to hit upon the right combination of 25 different alphanumeric characters when it doesn't know how many characters are necessary, and even if it did, the odds of doing so are essentially 36 to the 25th power if using just letters and numbers, or more than 64 to the 25th power if using the extended character set.

I'm no mathematician, but the amount of different security code combinations possible is so unimaginably vast that the resulting number would be several thousand digits in length, if not more. I suppose it might eventually be done, but I imagine it could take years on a supercomputer, and I doubt it would even be possible on a home PC.

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You reckon???

I have difficulty finding a percentage.

What - Multiply - go on explain that one.

I want to find a percentage so I multiply.

It works but - how the hell.

[cq_tech]

Just to give you an idea Helen, there are indeed programs out there that will try to access password-protected sites or devices by sequentially trying every combination of letter and numbers possible, but each one takes several seconds to be rejected before the next one can be attempted. You've done it yourself - you enter the wrong password and have to try again after the other end tells you that it was wrong (and this assumes they will give you no more than a certain number of tries before locking you out).

Now assuming a password of 25 random letters and numbers, each one of those characters can be one of 26 letters (A-Z) and 10 numbers (0-9) for a total of 36 different characters. That's just for one character, so imagine now that you have 25 characters, where each character can be any one of 36 different values.

The mathematical formula for calculating the different number of security code possibilities can be expressed as 25 to the 36th power (or 25x25x25x25... but 36 times in succession). If you try it on a calculator, you'll get an error after just the 5th power so you can easily see that the result will be thousands of numbers in length. If each attempt takes 5 seconds, that's only 720 tries in one hour, so even if the other end hasn't kicked you off by then, it would still take many years to crack the password unless you stumbled on it accidentally. I doubt I can make it any simpler than that.

[thecatspjs]

I don't really want to say anything online bout what set up I have - I am a tad paranoid ATM

[bakeandfry]

Also not many people know of teathering. Using your phone as an open portable wi-fi hot spot, you'd be amazed at how many are not password protected.

[ms_aussie]

So sorry to hear about this attempt on your account. But good for you Cat 🙂 I believe there is definitely a time and a place for **bleep** behaviour. Just ask me. I count everything twice and then check it out again in case I've made a mistake. Oh, yes, and everything is in it's place and orderly too 🙂

[thecatspjs]

  fanks

tip:  ya gotta use a triple aaa at the start

Certainly learnt a few additional things I can be doing to safe guard including the extra security measure Paypal offers.  

I will also never hot spot with my i-phone again   never gave that one a thought ...

thank-you all

[ms_aussie]

I can't believe an eBay moderator has cut the term aaaanal 🙂 Don't they realise its a psycholigical condition and not just a part of the anatomy that points to the ground 🙂 Stupid **bleeps***.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I think possibly people might be getting the 2 types of wi-fi connections confused. The securest connection is the one that is connected via a router to your landline phone line. Older routers have the long password as CQ mentioned. My newer router had a word and a number, which was on a sticker stuck to the back of the router!!!!! The sticker was removed. You can easily find what your router password is by going to a particular site (which I can't remember now, but easily found via google)

It's surprising how many people still have an unsecured internet connection! The people 4 doors up do and it's tempting to go and sit outside their house and use their connection to blow their download limit, just to teach them a lesson 😄

The other type of wi-fi is the one where you connect via the little thumb drive stick that you shove into the USB, or one of those little box thingies. They are nowhere near as secure as the connection is often open. I can't use one of those here as I need to go right down the back yard to pick up the faintest signal.....although I did try when my old ISP spat the dummy and disconnected me (through no fault of mine....they forgot to update their bank details in their invoice and it wasn't until I got disconnected that I realised my direct debits were bouncing back).

If you're using a router connected to your landline, that has a secure connection, you are pretty safe from hackers. The other type, not so much.

As for using the phone as a hot spot, handy if your internet is down, like a few months ago when an idiot in a speeding car wiped out the phone pole out the front of my place, taking my landline with it. I wouldn't do anything like net banking or anything else that requires a secure connection though. It's handy for checking sites and emails.