NEVER Give Out Your Password! (Part two)

A month ago, I posted this article, Give Out Your Password? NOT! NEVER! It's even more urgent and very important that you do not even give your password out to anyone, not even someone who claims to be your friend. Here's why;

Internet scammers target deaf community

The scam works exactly the same way in every time. They say you've won money or something like that. In reality, you haven't. The account of someone you know is compromised somehow and this person impersonates them. They'll IM everyone on the buddy list. Then this same person on a second account talks to you, and tells you to talk to your friend or your friend will talk to you.

This is your classic confidence or similar scheme.

How do you defend yourself? A good password not found in the dictionary that's at least 6 characters. That plus never giving out your password to anyone. Even better is to actually pay attention to how your "friend" is typing including use of capitals and lower case and English. There's a way to know if it's your friend or not;

- certain things only you and your friend know, change the details of them.
- Ask them about how their husband/wife is, but this time, use a completely different name.
- Ask if they're going to this imaginary event/movie next month with you.
- If the actual owner of the account has an illness, give a different name than what the illness is and ask them about it. For example, if they need surgery on their arm, ask about their broken leg.

If the person doesn't even make corrections to your 'mistakes'...

BUSTED! COVER BLOWN!

It works every time without failure.

Give Out Your Password? NOT! NEVER!

There's some AIM screen names, most notably "powerball4real8," that are being used to scam more deaf out there. Watch also for any with "emerson" in it, like "pacemerson247" that kept getting others. This time it's of someone who is trying to ask you for your password to "open the briefcase" to get the person their money.

First, this is another variation of the Nigerian scam.

Second, this is a gross violation of your account security. Plenty of damage they can do with your account.

Third, it's against the TOS of any service out there to give out your password.

So in short, do NOT give out your password, no matter what. I made this mistake some years ago back in college and had it locked down shortly afterwards. Apparently, someone combined a bunch of files into one huge file and sent it to various people, including the system operators and, unbelievably, the head of operations! Needless to say, I had to do some explaining. I've even broken into a few accounts myself due to weak passwords and my knowing the person well.

Worse stuff can be done with more sensitive accounts. Again, do not give out your passwords. A password like cat-0cargo3 is quite difficult to brute-force crack. The longer your password, the longer it takes.

Deaf Scams via AIM

Did anyone get an AIM message from someone claiming to be an FBI agent, law enforcement officer, etc? It most likely is a scam. They will often offer you something like this if you work for them online;

- cash every month or week, usually nearly $1,000
- a new vehicle
- pay for vehicle registration, typically a few hundred
- have you fill out an application which most likely you will send to a completely different address

They may say something about helping other deaf. Don't fall for this scam. You will most likely lose money and be a victim of ID theft. Report it to the people they were trying to fraudulently represent.

One other IM scam I've heard about is how the FBI IMs the so-called victims. Maybe the FBI/law enforcement does this from time to time when the victim requests but a lot of the time from what I've seen, they'll use snail mail or the phone. However, when one receives an IM from the "FBI," let them make the first moves. They should have all your info in front of them including your case number and related information.

My own experiences almost exactly mirror Dianarez's experience in her Scamming Deaf via Sidekick blog post. In my case, this other person tried to impersonate a police chief in Ohio. They were very interested in knowing who this person was when I contacted them. If you see ddaservice on AIM, that's the person. Another time it was a business.

One way they get your info is via DeafVP. That's a scammer's paradise right there since all IM info is out in the open. Make it so they have to email you for the info, like I do. When I removed my info, the IMs from them stopped.


Update 3/24/2009:

When posting chat logs anywhere, change your AIM name to something like [name_removed], and remove your personal info with [personal_info_removed]. This way, you're protecting yourself from worse things like ID theft.

Let's get this powerball4real8 idiot OFF the air!