This opened up the website in the default browser. The scammer's next step was to ask us to type "into the search window in the Start menu. It's not clear why the scammer had us go through these steps, except maybe so that he could later claim that the stopped services were evidence of system malfunction. Of course, we did, as most Windows systems will have some stopped services. The tech scammer then had us open the Services tab in the System Configuration interface and tell us if we saw any services in a "Stopped" state. This brought up the Windows System Configuration interface.
He instructed us to go to the Start menu and type in "msconfig," then hit Enter. The aforementioned Indian chap was polite and helpful, and told us that we needed to upgrade our version of Windows. A pre-recorded female voice told us that our Microsoft services would be "terminated" and that we needed to call (844) 308-6819 straight away.īeing up for a little adventure, we did. In our own case, we got a call at home a few minutes ago. This article originally appeared on : How to Protect Yourself from Tech-Support Scams And if you do open an email and then decide it might be a hacker, do not open the attachments. Hackers often try to bait people into opening emails or attachments that may contain malware. Make sure all your apps and services are fully updated to take advantage of any recent security improvements. Most services offer the option to text a code to a phone number on file for your account so only a person with both your password and your cellphone can access. That means employing more than just an easily sharable password to authenticate your login attempt. If you want to log in to your accounts, you should be able to verify you’re the one trying to log in and not someone else. Enable two-factor authentication for all accounts and update apps If you want an airtight layer of protection, you can always setup a PGP key so only the intended recipient can decrypt your emails.
Gmail is endorsed by security researchers for being a secure service that most people can trust. Then visit the account settings of services you’ve connected to your Yahoo account and disconnect them immediately. Search your emails for sensitive correspondence, delete liberally and empty the trash folder.
If your Yahoo account information is indeed for sale, someone can hack into your email and find information you’d rather keep locked safe. Review old emails, delete sensitive content and disconnect accounts Do some digging and find an option that works best for you. You can find some great free or extremely cheap ones online. The best way to keep track of all your new passwords is with a password manager, which stores all your account details in an encrypted vault on your smartphone and your desktop. Be sure to give each separate account a unique password, too. Update all your passwords to make them long and strong. Make a list of all the online accounts where you store sensitive information. If you have a Yahoo account, here’s what you should do. We send people we trust our account details for all kinds of services over email, and whether it's as benign as a Netflix password or as potentially devastating as a pornography website login or credit card number, we expect our email accounts to be password-protected and private. Yahoo says the attack likely included email addresses, passwords, names and phone numbers - not payment card data or bank account information.īut our email accounts are packed with personal information. That’s larger than the population of the United States and Mexico combined.
The company confirmed today, after Recode broke the story last night, that 500 million user accounts were breached in a massive hack. If you’ve ever signed up for an account with Yahoo, there’s cause for concern.