Bitcoin Scam - advice?

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Kol12

347 posts

Ultimate Geek

#268461 20-Mar-2020 17:22

I fell for a Bitcoin scam. I should have seen the warning signs earlier. It involved a fake Herald article somehow posted on MSN.com/nz. Personal details such as email, name, phone number and address have been disclosed. What can/should I do to to protect my identity? 😟

P.S. How they even manage to get their link/webpage onto the official MSN web page? It looked pretty convincing.

frankv

3767 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2442648 21-Mar-2020 09:39

If you have "signed in" to anything the scammers provided, *immediately* change passwords on every other site that you used that same password, or a similar password, on. Ensure your email has a difficult-to-crack password. Enable 2-factor authentication on that email account.

Did you give them your credit card details or bank account number? If so, I'd discuss with your bank what to do next.

Be super vigilant for future scams... if you've taken the bait once, they will try every other scam they know on you. Then they will sell your information to other scammers, who will also try.

Kol12

347 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2442807 21-Mar-2020 12:30

frankv:

If you have "signed in" to anything the scammers provided, *immediately* change passwords on every other site that you used that same password, or a similar password, on. Ensure your email has a difficult-to-crack password. Enable 2-factor authentication on that email account.

Did you give them your credit card details or bank account number? If so, I'd discuss with your bank what to do next.

Be super vigilant for future scams... if you've taken the bait once, they will try every other scam they know on you. Then they will sell your information to other scammers, who will also try.

I use complex unique passwords with a password manager. Would you recommend changing my mobile number and migrating my email to a new address? Once my IP address has been refreshed is it impossible for my machine to be located?

richms

23395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2442941 21-Mar-2020 13:29

Friends dad did some online form thing, just started to get all sorts of scam calls about investment opportunities, and lots of phishing attempts to that email address.

msn have all sorts of advertising on site, noone checks those ads for scams etc, so it will just appear as an related link and they just use herald logos and stuff on it.

Richard rich.ms

Kol12

347 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2442945 21-Mar-2020 13:35

richms:

Friends dad did some online form thing, just started to get all sorts of scam calls about investment opportunities, and lots of phishing attempts to that email address.

msn have all sorts of advertising on site, noone checks those ads for scams etc, so it will just appear as an related link and they just use herald logos and stuff on it.

These people have nothing to do with investments and it's clear they are hackers. Alarm bells screamed when they wanted to run a remote desktop app. I'm seriously considering changing my mobile number and migrating my email to a new address...

linw

2180 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2443063 21-Mar-2020 15:35

Speaking personally, my email addr is all over the place now so do I change it? If I did, do I change it, say, every 6 months??

My phone number will be 'out there' as well so do I change it every wee while?

The above is nightmare territory.

In the 'old' days, we all had our name, address and phone no. published in books and these are now online.

Just some thoughts.

Kol12

347 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2443385 21-Mar-2020 21:12

linw:

Speaking personally, my email addr is all over the place now so do I change it? If I did, do I change it, say, every 6 months??

My phone number will be 'out there' as well so do I change it every wee while?

The above is nightmare territory.

In the 'old' days, we all had our name, address and phone no. published in books and these are now online.

Just some thoughts.

All over the place with hackers? If your details are in a data breach with millions of others no big deal but a smaller breach is concerning. These people were clearly looking for documents for identity theft.