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How can I remove my user name and password from an identity thief?
Date: 24 August 2008
Time: HKT 1300 - 1600
Details:
An offline MSN instant message from a friend who has not IM-ed me for a long time:
"if you want to see who has blocked or deleted you on msn please go to the following link
www.getbonusbucks.info"
I thought that friends share good things, so I clicked into it.
There was an agreement which stated that I could remove my user name anytime using an email address. So I entered my Hotmail user name and password (I thought that was necessary for the other side to find out who blocked or deleted me).
Later I found that I could not remove it. I emailed to that email address only to get "message delivery failure" emails for every email I sent. The site has not kept its promise to even be able to remove any names entered, not to mention remove it entirely.
Do you know how to remove my user name and password in the database and the memory of those websites, servers and all else? Or if you are a computer or Internet expert, can you please give me ways to contact the host(s) or servers of that website, or authorities specializing in identity theft? However please do bear in mind that:
- I am just a commoner and if I persuaded and/or did everything alone, I would not be persuasive enough. Are there more respectable people who can also help?
- This mistake was not made in the US, and no credit report, bank account or Social Security Number is attached to my Hotmail account. Are there organizations that can help?
- This is urgent: This website will expire (see http://whois.domaintools.com/getbonusbucks.info for details) before I am given the chance to request for the most help in August 2009. If I requested for help at that time, the identity thieves would be very much at large and they would deny setting up the website to create chaos in the cyberworld, chaos like this case of mine. I will literally be extremely grateful to you for your valuable aid. It is not certain if I really get the chance to speak up, but if I do, I will definitely speak of your help. Definitely.
One more question: could you please give me advice on how I should deal with this situation? Certainly prevention is better than cure, yet I have even considered permanently closing my Hotmail account, but this I do not wish.
A suggestion: if you are one who knows little about computers or Internet security, why not refer this question to a computer or Internet expert? The expert may contact me by mail; the link is in my profile.
You did not come across this question by chance.
Seize the day.
Answerers: Please understand my situation. I cannot contact the identity thief via the email on the website.
I have changed my password, thanks, but I am afraid of hacks. What if a hack was successful? I used a strong password but it does not guarantee that my account is 100% safe from being hacked.
Advice on how I should deal with this situation - where my email is out in the cyberworld, not tucked away in my brain - is what I need, not preventions.
Please forgive me for my impatience but I must get this matter dealt with. Try to put yourself in my shoes.
Oh and please find computer or Internet experts that can really help. Copy-and-paste may gain you points, but I have read even the joints.
What I mean by "I have changed my password" is that I changed my password that fateful Sunday.
The password was changed after the original one went out into the open.
5 Answers
- Tracy LLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Well, you have been hit by what is commonly known as a phising site! They send emails or IMs from what appears to be someone you know (Even your Bank, Credit Card Company, etc) so that you will click a link and reveal information about yourself. (These really are not from the person that it says they are from NOT AT ALL!)
Rule 1. NEVER click a link in an email or IM unless you know for a FACT where it came from.
Rule 2. Never click a link in an email or IM even if you know where it came from!
Phishing (you can search that) is very common, very dangerous, and is not quickly fixed. So just don't fall for it!
Now as to how you can FIX it.
Log on to your hotmail account and CHANGE THE PASSWORD NOW! Don't wait, don't even get coffee.
Use a real password not words etc... Try this
Take a sentance "I have been had by 1 Site which now has my Password and Username from HotMail it happened 2 day." Make it a password
"Ihbhb1SwnhmPaUfHih2d" all you have to do is remember the sentance! That password is not easily cracked and will stop whatever the fishing site wants to do with your Password!
Change it NOW! And Never trust links - go directly to sites that you know! ANd if You do click a LINK Never reveal account infromation from that link period!
Oh, and the worst that will happen from this, is lots of SPAM directed to your published email.. don't even think of clicking links to remove, all that does is confirm the email address is valid thus allowing more spam!
ADDED: OK, if you have changed your password with a GOOD password, relax.. they can't do anything with just an email address. Its not ID theft.. ID theft would need your name, address, birth date, tax id information, and much more. If none of that is on your email address just take a deep breath. Your fine.. like I said the worst that can happen is you will start receiving SPAM which hotmail will filter!
This really is no worse than signing up for a newsletter or entering your email address to win a drawing! (They usually don't ask for your password, and if that password is changed what difference does it make?)
Source(s): Lots of internet issues - TL - Anonymous5 years ago
Yes, it bothers me very much! The way I see it, is if they "love" the band/musician so much, then why can't they spell the name correctly? That's the same for songs. I absolutely am so bothered by fake-fans, even of bands/musicians/songs I don't like. I know people are fake-fans just so they can seem "cool", or something, which is the thing that bothers me the most.
- 1 decade ago
First off, talk to the friend that sent you this crap email. Get it strait why he did it, and if he has done it himself what he did. Ok there are a couple of things to do. you could get a new email, contact the website and DEMAND that you get your name taken off, and that you said you could. (threaten to press charges on false words or something like that) normally they will just take your name off. I dont know who else you could take to, besides those people that help you fix computer problems. I know they cost money but they can help. Ok hopes that helps!
- Gypsy GirlLv 71 decade ago
The only thing you can do now is to change your password. You don't need to close the account if you change your password quickly.
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- Anonymous1 decade ago
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