Ask Slashdot: Identity Theft Attempt In Progress; How To Respond?

An anonymous reader writes "It appears that two weeks ago my email address got into the wrong database. Since that time there have been continuing attempts to access my accounts and create new accounts in my name. I have received emails asking me to click the link below to confirm I want to create an account with Twitter, Facebook, Apple Games Center, Facebook mobile account, and numerous pornographic sites. I have not attempted to create accounts on any of these services. I have also received 16 notices from Apple about how to reset my Apple ID. I am guessing these notices are being automatically generated in response to too many failed login attempts. At this point I have no reason to believe any of my accounts have been compromised but I see no good response."

Comments

Change your e-mail address

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Sometimes, it becomes necessary to change your e-mail address.

Re:Change your e-mail address

[Bearhouse]

Indeed. Keep the old ones, of course, but change the passwords to something very, very secure and different for each one.
Backup then delete all information associated in the Cloud with these addresses, (Android, iCloud, Gdrive...)

Do not reuse any of the old accounts for anything. Use a "one-time" account for verification each of the new accounts, then nuke it and change to a new one.
Do not be tempted to have one master account for verification of all the child ones.
If you're using gmail, or similar, do NOT use some variation of your name, home town, company, whatever.

Finally, pony up for your own domain etc. and get a nice email account you can totally control. Cheap, too.

Re:Change your e-mail address

[Aardpig]

One does not simply change one's email address...

did you change your email password?

[alen]

to something not in the dictionary?

after that i would just ignore the failed attempts. after a while the perp will stop and move on to easier prey

Re:did you change your email password?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but he did change them all to "honest equine capacitor fastener"

Re:did you change your email password?

[bitt3n]

to something not in the dictionary?

I don't know about this advice. I once fell for one of those nigerian scammers who duped me into giving him my email password. then I changed my password to 'gullible', since I've heard that's not in the dictionary. somehow it was the first thing he guessed. what's worse is I used it for all my accounts, and now he posts idiotic comments as me on slashdot.

What would you report?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... yes... There's this person, probably in another country, that I suspect is trying to gain access to my facebook account. LOL.

Taken?

[eldavojohn]

Okay you need to listen to me carefully and to be focused. Do you have access to a bathtub? Good, take your laptop into the bathroom and fill the bathtub full of water. I need you to log into your Facebook and open your Farmville tab. You need to do this quickly before they gain access. Take each of your animals from your farm and love them and nuzzle them and say goodbye to them. Then hold them under water in the bathtub until they stop struggling.

Are you done? Good, leave them in the tub, they're in a better place now.

Go back into your room and crawl under your bed so the satellites they have control of cannot see you. Open up your Apple account and start forwarding your e-mails to your Gmail account. Yes, I know it will take forever, no there is not an easier way to do this. Okay, once you have all of those out delete your Apple account -- you'll get a new one later. You never really owned that stuff you bought on iTunes so just forget about it now, it's gone. Now log into iCloud on your laptop and start the laptop on fire. It's better to destroy all of those photos, tax returns and documents then to let them have them.

Now listen carefully because this part is important. These men are going to access your accounts. They're going to send your friends messages and make you seem like a jerk -- just for fun. There's nothing you can do about that. Just make sure to leave the Slashdot chat box open when they take you ...

Hello?

Hello? Anonymous Reader?

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very large amount of Slashdot karma; karma I have acquired over a very long career. Karma that make me feel like I can stand up to people like you. If you let the anonymous reader's accounts go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will ask you politely to stop messing with people.

bullshit - gmail does NOT recognize dots

[rgbrenner]

Good call on posting your BS as an AC.

Google Help: Receiving someone else's mail
http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10313

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours. In short:

homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

All these addresses belong to the same person. You can see this if you try to sign in with your username, but adding or removing a dot from it. You'll still go to your account.

Re:Yeah you're right

[echnaton192]

What moron moderated this bullshit "insightful"?

1. Including navigational software in my case it would rather be 300 EUR. How about steam? How about othe electronic goods?
2. You do not have to create new accounts, only the password and the emailaddress associated with it - your initial post was already misleading
3. If you do 2. and not the bullshit you were suggesting, nobody has to rebuy anything

Again: What moron moderated this insightful?

Re:Don't just sit on your hands...

[operagost]

So first he beats you up, then takes your wallet?