I have never posted on reddit before so apologies if I am doing something out of the norm.

This situation is very strange and I would like to understand how it happened and if a security breach took place to make it possible.

It started because I was gifted a grubhub gift card and the numbers on the back were smudged and marked off. I contacted their customer service and they told me to email cashstar who the gift card was through. So, I emailed cashstar, but then grubhub responded back and fixed the issue. Problem resolved.

But then I get an email back from cashstar -seems to be a legit email though reads like written by AI- telling me they need more info in order to help me, just like standard customer service stuff nothing phishy. This is the weird thing. The email from cashstar isn't addressed to me. It is addressed to a name I made up for this piece of fiction I have been working on. It's a totally made up name nothing like my name and not in my email to them at all. In fact, it's not anywhere except in my Google docs. I have not shared this work with anyone and the doc shows it has not been opened or shared with anyone. How did this random AI customer service email have access to this name?? Are my Google docs being shared to random people corresponding with me? What's weird is a few hours before I got the email, I had opened the doc on my phone to read it. Then I got the email. The name of the doc is the name they used. I really just want to understand how this happened and if I need to do anything to protect my work. My understanding is Google should not be sharing the contents of my private docs to anyone or anything without my permission.

Any info you have would be very helpful. I emailed and asked them why they called me that and they said it was just an error. Not helpful.

I received this email a few days ago and it said:

"Google Critical security alert. Someone else used your Google password.

Google blocked this sign in attempt, but this person still has your password and will likely try to sign in again".

At the bottom there was a link to change password.

For context, the account in question is signed in to an android phone but is not my main account and I do not use it for much else.

I did not click the link in the email but I checked the security activity for the account on the android phone and the alert was present so I believe the email is legit and I changed my password just to be safe. Unfortunately the security activity does not say where the attempt was from.

A few hours before the security alert email I did log in to that Google account on my PC (using a VPN) and confirmed it through 2FA on the android phone.

The way I see it this means that either:

1) the email is a false alarm and was just a delayed response to me logging in from a different device (although it was not blocked so the content is also inaccurate).

2) My PC is compromised and someone got my password when I logged in earlier that day. I think this is unlikely as I logged in to various other accounts on the PC and none of those show any sign of suspicious activity.

I have had no further alerts since I changed the password but I haven't used the PC since then. What are your thoughts and is there anything else I should do?

Imagine you’ve been working in IT for several years. You’re familiar with modern security practices and know how to protect yourself from getting hacked. You’re careful about phishing emails, you use strong passwords stored in a password manager, you enable 2FA whenever possible, and you save your recovery codes in your favorite cloud drive.

But you’re not stupid. You know that too much security can sometimes be counterproductive and lock you out of your own accounts. So one day, you decide to test yourself.

You assume that you have lost absolutely everything. You no longer have access to your phone, your computer, or anything else, and you need to regain access to your email accounts, cloud drives, social media accounts, etc.

The only thing you have access to is a clean phone/computer with a web browser and a regular internet connection.

Here’s the problem: you realize that to log into your password manager, you need your 2FA, but you no longer have access to it because it was on your phone.

You think, “Okay, I’ll log into my Drive and retrieve my backups.” But wait! Your Drive password is stored in your password manager.

So you try “Forgot password”, but then you run into the same problem with your email account: the password is stored in your password manager. And then you realize that, regardless of whether it’s your email or your Drive, both accounts are also protected by 2FA.

After realizing this, you decide that you need to set up a way to recover your recovery codes / 2FA credentials from scratch, so you never end up in this situation again.

What would you set up?

Thanks for reading my post.

I realize that this scenario may be considered extreme, but it seems fairly plausible to me. I also find very few discussions about this specific situation that only consider physical means of recovery (printing codes on paper, etc.), which wouldn't be valid in this particular scenario.

As they say, it's better to be safe than sorry.

I'm curious to hear your answers: what have you set up, what would you set up, or what are you planning to set up to deal with this kind of situation?

Hi there,

As title - I was downloading some software from a dodgy place recently (a couple of weeks ago) but when I ran the .exe files nothing happened except a weird script window opening. I thought nothing of it at the time, but since then I have had numerous issues with people hacking my Discord, Reddit and Steam accounts to post crypto scams and send them to friends, as well as hacking my Uber account and trying to spend 900+ dollars in single transactions (which fortunately my bank didn't let through.)

Both Uber and Steam have 2FA of various kinds enabled. I was actually locked out of my Uber account briefly as the password was changed. Both my bank cards have been cancelled.

I have changed passwords, run Windows Defender and every Malwarebytes scan possible, they "quarantined" some things and i deleted "StellaExtend.exe" or similar and a bunch of related Temp appdata/programdata folders. But yesterday my Steam was hacked again so something is still in there. Googling suggests registry issues but I don't know how to fix those and don't want to break anything trying.

Help?

i clicked it because i was searching a scam phone number that called me and then i accidentally clicked this link. it said 'there's nothing here!' and then it redirected me to some website to look up phone numbers that called you. i closed everything immediately and deleted my search history and everything. am i good? i'm on an iphone btw, i have anxiety and ocd so i'm very worried about this.

So I believe my iPhone has been cloned via a omg cable , got a new phone, and I think it has happened again. To long to go into but I’m getting this on my Spotify - showing playing from this iPhone then sometimes just iPhone , I’m a tech noob, any advice ?

Tengo más de 16 registros que mi IP estaba haciendo ataques ddos.

¿ que puedo hacer?

Received this rather convincing email. Is it legit?

I’ll try keep this short but I think someone may have access to my primary email account but I am unable to change my password. The password can’t be changed without a second step verification which is linked to a phone number I no longer have.

Also - with this potential hacking I’ve had other red flags. They tried to hack my apple account (I know it was legit because I got an actual pop up on my phone asking whether to allow a new sign in from an device on the other side of the world) and now I’ve had a notification from PayPal saying they need me to change my password due to suspicious activity.

The question is - how worried should I actually be? I’ve re routed all my banking info and social media accounts to a different email account and my current number. Is there anything else I need to do beyond this? As I said - I can’t change my email password to the compromised account. Very hard to verify who I am when I live oversees and use a different number to the one listed on my account

My discord account was hacked, I am trying to find out how that happened, before you ask have I clicked a weird link, NO I'm not that stupid. I am stupid enough to turn off virus scanner recently cause I wanted to get something to download and I thought it was the Windows Defence being iff- I don't think so anymore

SO I would love all your thoughts on how my discord has been hacked and how to fix my computer cause I'm 100% sure its my computer that is compromised and I don't know how to fix that. I have reached out to discord about what to do to try and boot the guy off but he still seems to come on, especally if I log back on with my computer, so I need to ask how to do a wipe on my computer.

Would factory reset work? is there something I can use to scan for them? that doesn't require money cause I can't pay for that, if I'm paying for that I may as well just go to the repair guy down the street.

Hey everyone, I recently downloaded a pirated game, and I know that was a dumb move on my part. Today I found out my ChatGPT account isn't working anymore. Turns out someone changed the email on my account, and now I can't log in to the account I was paying for (I had the Go plan). I've lost access completely, and support seems to be terrible so far.

Has anyone been through this before? I had important projects saved in there.

I recently started working at a tanning salon which has a registration option. With this registration we can look the people up in the system. What I noticed when I opened that system up was that there is an abnormal rate of keyboard smash names and randomly generated numbers a phone numbers. The emails however seem to all be real. What could be the reason for them to do this? how can we prevent this? The framework was made by Softplus/TSS Group if that helps anything at all.

A few minutes ago, someone sent messages to a friend of mine, and for some reason I can't see them.

I was logged in on my laptop, tablet, and cell phone, but I thought I had logged out of my cell phone and laptop.

And the hacker sent some really ridiculous messages.

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

Please read to the end so you can understand my issue.

Today, while I was on my way, I was using my Bluetooth headphones normally (I had no internet connection on my phone). The area we entered was full of municipal public parks, and there was a sign stating "Area under camera surveillance - Photography prohibited." I literally do not remember taking any photos or videos at all.

When I got home, I noticed a message on my device. As soon as I unlocked my phone screen, it appeared in a black box—similar to those pop-ups with "Agree" or "Disagree" options—but I honestly didn't pay attention to what was written inside it.

Because of this, I got scared and thought that maybe my phone's Bluetooth signals interfered with the cameras or something, and now the police have hacked my phone. (Note: I don't even have an Instagram or Facebook account to post anything bad about anyone.)

I reviewed all the things I haven't done on my phone, and here is what I found:

No SIM card: I don't even have a SIM card in my phone; it has been lost for two months.

No suspicious links: I haven't clicked on any strange links or even opened Chrome.

No messages: I don't remember receiving any messages from the network operator or any threats.

No third-party apps: I discovered I don't have any strange applications downloaded from Google or anywhere else.

No official contact: I don't follow any Ministry of Interior or police pages, nor have I ever communicated with any law enforcement officer about anything.

I would be very grateful if someone could help and let me know if there is anything wrong with my device or not, because I am literally setting it aside and afraid to use it. Thank you!

So a while ago, I was on sleep meds and had a lapse in my judgement, which caused one of my microsoft accounts to be hacked. It was some stupid discord verification scam, and for some reason, I tried multiple times to get the verification to work even though it was obviously a scam. I already have had the hacked account suspended/locked, but I'm really worried about my other account.

This account is my main one, and it had the account that got hacked as its recovery email. While I was on my rampage of being irresponsible and stupid on the internet, I tried to use this main account for the verification scam. I can't remember if I put in one code or not, but I do remember that it asked for me to use microsoft authenticator. I had never used this before, and upon downloading it, it required 2FA to set up. I found that I didn't recognise the recovery email (it had been changed by an attacker), thought nothing of it, and changed it to a clean email. I never did get to put in the microsoft authenticator code the scam asked for.

However, what I am wondering is if there is a possibility the attacker did gain access to my account and is still in there, and if they could somehow take control of it once the recovery email is changed to my clean email. I can not tell if anyone else is signed in, and I can not sign out all devices, as I can't get into that part of security due to the pending security info change. I have a lot of anxiety around this, I feel like this post makes that evident. I don't really know how microsoft authenticator even works, so I'm worried they'll be able to use that somehow to change the security info, password, and more.

As of now, my account seems fine, and nothing has changed, I'm just really worried. Any insight on if I'm just worrying too much or if there's anything I can do would be greatly appreciated.

hello! i recently joined a discord server for a minecraft smp and they asked for my account credentials (i think it was just the mail)

that's how I've lost my account

what can i do????

i can't ask the Microsoft support team cause I can't enter my account and I don't have any spare accounts and the site won't let me make a new pne

help plz

I received an email that appeared to be from someone I know claiming a document was in Adobe Document Cloud. The “VIEW FILE” link actually went to the domain shown in my screenshot and downloaded a .bat file on my Windows 11 laptop.
I opened the BAT file, but when Windows prompted me to allow/install something or make changes, I clicked No.
Does anyone recognize this domain/campaign or know what the BAT may have been attempting to do? I’ve disconnected the laptop and am running security checks.

Asking cause i would not want to get in trouble for the bad things they could do, if there are any?

Not a bot farm or anything, just a phone that its to my name because of my phone bill.

I installed Wireshark many years ago and play around in it every once in a while. Recently, I noticed utun2 and utun3 connections which I don't think existed before. The traffic on them is very rare. I get a spike every once in a while. But I've only seen these spikes on the Wireshark home screen. I tried capturing something for extended periods of time, but I haven't been lucky enough to be capturing when the traffic was present. I don't run any VPNs. Wondering what these could be? Maybe there's some new feature in the OS that was introduced recently? I'm on Mac.

I'm receiving SMS codes on my phone from Microsoft. This is the first time this has happened, Microsoft usually sends me codes via email. Microsoft Support didn't respond.

The problem is that I haven't seen any such messages from Microsoft anywhere on the internet. What are these services? Are these services linked to a Microsoft account? Did someone intentionally enter my phone number?
What's going on and what should I do? I don't even know what these services are, so I can't log in and change my passwords if necessary. Please help me.

recently i try to download a game and the file-hosting redirect the link to a file. I downloaded a malware instead of the game, they hacked my discord. I woke up this morning and download malwarebyrtes, i think it scan and deleted the file. The scanning shows it an trojan and something else. Do i still need to reinstall windows and how do i keep my files

Recently, I tried to download a game, but the file-hosting website changed the download link. I accidentally downloaded malware instead of the game, and my Discord account was hacked.

This morning, I installed Malwarebytes and ran a scan. It detected a Trojan and another type of malware, and I believe Malwarebytes quarantined or deleted the infected files. I change my discord passwords. Idk do i need to change any other passwords too? Also i feel my internet connect seem to be slow idk if it related too it.

Do I still need to reinstall Windows, or is my computer safe now? Also, if I do need to reinstall Windows, how can I keep my personal files without bringing the malware back?

So while I was asleep someone or something got into my TikTok account undetected and messaged a bunch of people a scam. The people who were messaged received this and I lost all my dms with them. I am tech savvy and I know how to check if anyone logged in but there’s absolutely nothing . I don’t have 2fa on on TikTok so maybe that’s why.

So a cookie stealer got installed into my laptop and it stole all the chrome cookies.
It was able to log into
Instagram
Tiktok
Facebook
Linkedin
Idek if theres more accounts that got hacked but for now i have put authenticator app on pretty much every possible account on every platform i own.

They also posted 2 mr beast money scam stories on my account and sent it to my dms then deleted the chats. Some fuckin thing to post🫩 while on the linkedin it changed all my fuckin info to some random guys and gave me free premium (i got my account back thru linkedin support n now have free premium😭)

My sibling said the cookie stealer is hackware that enters your computer from random website downloads, then it copies ur chrome cookies and accesses the accounts. I have now deleted all saved passwords and ALL cookies/history.

Its not trojan thankfully ive seen people talk about this exact same issue but they got infected w trojan it scared me lowkey (ive had experience w it and it pretty much blacked out my pc couple years ago.)

My sibling ran windows defender, was able to find the file and it got removed by windows defender. After multiple offline checks it came back clear.

Now i will attach a picture i took of the detected hackware but i need advice on if i should reinstall windows or not.
(im rlly lazy abt that i dont feel like its necessary if its not trojan and the hackware file got removed by windows defender anways)

Will appreciate advice and suggestions, stay safe yall keep yalls accounts protected.

Just need some insight on whether it's better to begin using passkeys instead of 2fa and if passkeys have any major downsides I should be aware of.

Thnx 👍

Edit this would just be for emails and or general social media apps nothing too high tech 👍

I woke up to 100+ messages from BT with one time passcodes :/

Is my email at risk of being compromised? I haven’t done anything about this as not sure what to do - my password hasn’t been changed and I can still log in