What to do if you're afraid to open that link/attachment [ARCHIVED]

[woofy31]

I’ve seen many sellers around here who had to go through the pain of having their accounts hijacked by malicious hackers and stolen their money 😦 These hackers usually send you a link that, when clicked, will install some malware on your system, or they will send you an attachment that, when opened, will either take over your system just for fun, or install some malware (keyloggers most of the time) - these will not only hijack your fiverr account, but also your emails & paypal account.



So I though it would be good to have a topic only on this matter and ask everyone to tell us what they do to stay safe from hackers (obviously excluding antivirus solutions since most people already have them installed).



Below are my tips that I strictly follow after having my account hacked a few years ago by a hacker who stole 200 bucks from me:

1. if you get a message that sounds too good to be true, it most likely is - anything that includes money / work offers should be reported as spam;
   
   
   
2. never give your email address, phone number, facebook or other of your accounts to anyone - doing so could hurt you in more ways than you can possibly think; almost anyone who asks for your email or phone number has nothing but bad intentions, not to mention that Fiverr's TOS doesn't allow publication of email addresses or phone numbers and you will risk being removed from Fiverr altogether
   
   
   
3. if you get a message from someone telling you to click a link just for the sake of it or to help them out, or who's offering you some other money-making alternatives at a specific link, don't even think about clicking it: 5% of the time it's indeed nothing but a harmless link from a user who just wants to attract traffic to his/her website, but the rest of 95% represents actual hacking attempts through the use of malicious websites or attachments - are you willing to risk? That's what I thought :)
   
   
   
4. never type your passwords in text fields (what if you're already infected with a keylogger that steals everything you type?), but rather use a password managing software that copy-pastes your passwords for you into those fields, or if you don't

[Guest bryanacido]

great info! very useful! I use lastpass for password manager and use portable browsers 🙂

[woofy31]

Reply to @bryanacido: great to hear you’re protecting yourself accordingly 😉 would you like to share any other tips on this topic?

[woofy31]

Reply to @oldbittygrandma: to reference that banning game that happens on the forum: banned for overusing that smiley face. It’s like the 10th time you’re using it today :))



Joke aside, thank you and I do hope that people will read this topic because I’m shocked by how many fiverr members believe everything they read 😦

[woofy31]

Reply to @oldbittygrandma: btw, I envy your sheriff’s badge :-<

[solow13]

Nice tips Woofy31,thank you,if you got a mac I suggest 1password software,you need to remember only one password the software will take care of all the other passwords.

[woofy31]

Reply to @solow13: thanks. and yes, I know, I’ve been using 1password for ages 🙂

[Guest bryanacido]

Reply to @woofy31:yeah don’t use same password in all your account or use incognito or private browsing

[woofy31]

Reply to @arnevb: I have to somehow disagree on this one… one of the sellers recently lost access to his fiverr account (which was linked to his facebook), and not only did he lose his money but also access to his facebook - so hackers can also hijack that one as well 😦

[Guest tn5rr2012]

All the more reason not to link FB and Fiverr

[woofy31]

Reply to @oldbittygrandma: thanks, really appreciate it coming from you 😃 I assume you just woke up? because I’m sure going to sleep now since it’s 5am and it’s almost “tomorrow” and I haven’t had any sleep… this forum is killing me, but it’s so addictive at times 😃

[junoteam]

Thank you so much!!! ^__<

[woofy31]

Reply to @junoteam: you’re most welcome ツ

[geekygood]

Great tip :)>-

[hironan]

Thanks very much for giving the useful tips… 🙂

[woofy31]

Reply to @oldbittygrandma: I received a message recently from someone who was telling me that a malicious person at a given link posts nasty stuff about me - so most people would obviously click the link to see who talks bad of them and what they say about them… but then surprise, clicking the link would lead you to a heavily scripted site that brings you nothing but trouble (and you will end up wishing that there was indeed someone talking bad about you instead of actually harming you)



Sometimes I wonder: where do these people find all these scamming methods? And other times I’m faced with near-jawdropping-experiences wondering how in God’s name they could have thought of something as elaborate as that…



And the worst thing is that new scamming methods keep popping up on a daily basis, and probably even as we speak someone is thinking of a new way to destroy lots of innocent & hard working people 😦



I’m disgusted by how this world turned out to be… our ancestors would be so ashamed and would probably tell us: "you are all living an abomination… and now it’s too late for you to be saved 😦 "

[hotwebideas]

Thanks for the advice!

[cybercube]

never type your passwords - This is so wrong bro. Keyloggers can easily see what are you copy. Best way is type few # marks in password and delete those using mouse. Or just use bitdefender 90days free edition 🙂

[woofy31]

Reply to @cybercube: yes, that tip alone will not help against all keyloggers, but the point here was to adopt at least a couple of tips from the above list, if not all 😉 because if you use all the tips together like I do, it doesn’t matter if keyloggers can monitor the clipboard.



Oh, btw: a password manager software is the best way to go, because it doesn’t put anything in your clipboard, but instead transfers the password directly in the browser input fields - no typing, no clipboard, just raw process intercommunication that cannot be hacked 😉

[markp]

@woofy31 This is not correct about password managers. Lastpass has been hacked numerous times but it is better than just typing in your password that’s for sure.

[woofy31]

Reply to @markp: Well, when you look for a password manager software, you must obviously make sure you’re getting a good app, because after all you’ll making it responsible for keeping your passwords safe, so it’s always wise to analyze all PM solutions before you dive into the most popular one (or the cheapest one like others would do) without analyzing the competition… I, for one, had no trouble whatsoever with 1Password 😉



Anyway, I won’t start a debate on this subject, because we’re going off topic - the point here was to give people a set of tips to use together… password managers alone won’t help much if you ignore the other tips 🙂



But why not share with us your tips on staying safe, markp? 😃 Because that’s what my plan was for this topic, to see how other sellers & buyers keep themselves safe from hacking attempts and let others learn from them and their experiences 🙂

[markp]

My tip for staying safe is to hide in the basement and wear a tinfoil hat… Other than that I made some suggestions before. http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/2893/stop-getting-your-accounts-compromised#Item_13

[Guest seohut]

Great tips

[Guest seohut]

Great tips

[Guest ukhostmasters]

This is to be keep in mind if you are already signed in and though you got a click on a link then why would you need to provide your login info: again at the SCAM PAGE? this is the main idea if we follow it then we wont get caught by hackers and scammers. As the session is already running and we don’t need to re-type our login details again.



Best Wishes