General Chat

I received the same kind of E mail supposedly from an Irish bank . Checked the banks' website and there was a scam warning describing the mail in detail. It' a good idea to check the supposed company's website before taking any action on E mails. Even contact them if you must. But in fact it's good practice to delete anything which rings alarm bells. Here in Qld there's an E mail button available to send scam mail directly to the Gov scam department. Be carefull out there.

We keep one card for on line use that has only £500 on it, not that we want to lose anything but £500 max seemed a good idea.

Now my credit card has been accessed for the second month in a row without my authority-this time for a larger amount ($39.11). I am furious-I
will have to let Visa know again,dispute the transaction, and see if I can get my credit card blocked from these low-life hackers.If you have had any credit card dealings with brs genealogy/IFHF I would advise you to keep a very good eye out for the following entry on your credit card statement-

CLKBANK*COM_DTHZ5LE2 followed by a space,then 3 separate sets of numbers,another space,then GB.If you see that,alarm bells should be ringing!

I have contacted IFHF and have told them exactly what has happened to me,and that I don't believe their assurances that our credit card details were not accessed,and are safe.

If the same thing has happened to you,you should email IFHF and let them know right away.

Margot.(from Melbourne,Australia.)

Someone on here ,(sorry,I've forgotten who), suggested using a card of low value especially for on-line transactions. I think that's a great idea,and worth looking into,especially after my experience.

Heather,re: your first paragraph on your last post-that is seriously scary!

Thing is, you forget that its not just your credit card stuff. By getting your name, address, phone number, email etc. on there they can steal your identity and take out loans, credit cards anything without you knowing til you get the bills for them.

Ive been scooting around changing my passwords on some sites now and Ive signed up to something my credit card company suggested, Credit Expert. They inform you if anyone tries to change anything on your credit details or if a company searches your details because someone has said they want to borrow money or open an account.

One good news I got this morning, the Card company told me that as they had spotted it so quickly (the crooks were using the card at 3 a.m. in the morning - they rang me first thing - they had managed to stop the stores sending out any of the goods the crooks ordered. Thats good, Id hate them to benefit, even if you dont lose the money.

Teresa, when they do use your credit card you dont lose any money, the card company foot it and then get it back from the suppliers for not treble checking their details. Never use a debit card on line, its like giving crooks access to your cash.

I don't use a normal credit card or debit card to shop online. I only ever use a pre-paid credit card. It costs £4.95 a month usage fee, but I'd be paying that in interest on a normal credit card anyway...and some.

But, using that, I first have to make a trip to put the required amount of cash ON the card, before using it to make my online purchase. Nobody can use the card without funds in the account...so if the card is skimmed, they won't get anywhere, and I don't lose money. I just get a new card.

I really don't know why a lot more people haven't taken up this idea, it's far safer. People WILL get your details one way or another if they really want to, all you can do is protect them as much as possible, but you can certainly protect your money this way

Heather,I just got an email from brs genealogy,telling me to change my password.It was genuine,so I have done it.I believe that my credit card was accessed by the people who hacked in to that site,so they are telling porkies,our credit card details have been accessed. They are probably trying not to cause any panic,but I would prefer to know rather than be in ignorance about it. I really hate buying anything on-line,and using my credit card details.

Good on you,JaneyCanuck for being smart!

Margot.

One more reason to never ever ever put personal info on the internet when you don't have to.

I got the email -- addressed to Ms. Janey C.

(Actually I had used my real first name and real surname initial -- but NOT my full real surname.)

The email came to an account that is also not in my real/full name.

There is no reason to put one's true personal details on any site like that one, or this one.

The one thing I do that isn't too clever is use the same password for different sites. The one I had there was the one I have at other similar sites (it ain't anymore!).

So if I *had* put my real/full name there, let alone other details like my address or an email account giving my real name (and often disclosing a general location), someone who had got my password there might have been able to access other places where I am registered on line and got more info.

I think they'd first have to figure out where else I'm registered on line. ;)

So as long as my real personal details aren't on record at places like that, I feel quite safe.

Putting one's real/full name at places like Facebook or FriendsReunited ... or here .......... the idea and the possibilities horrify me!

I v'e just had a look on the Irish site and yes they do have my name and address but i have not bought any credits as of yet so they wont have my card details .. thank goodness ..
Hazelx
Deleted post below as posted twice ..

I dont know how they got it. The security bloke said they can get details from mates working at a call centre or company. The big sickener was that I had put extra security on in the form of Visa Verify. So when you actually buy something on the net you then have a further box come up before they verify the purchase. On that box you have to enter another password, different to your card. These people had changed that password. To change it you click that you have forgotten the details then you are asked questions like what is your date of birth, your post code, your phone number. To change it they had to know those details.(which are on the irish site data base)

I recieved an e-mail today , i have changed my password
although i dont ever remember having a password with them ..but i must have for them to send me the e-mail but i have never used my card on the site, the only site that i have used my card is the GRO and Ancestry i have just changed my password on there as well .
but thank you Heather for putting this thread up, because to be honest i wouldn't of known whether to change my password or not, there seems to be so much scamming going on you dont know whether it real or false .
Hazelx

nudge for H

Heather but don't they have to have access to your card details before they can access it to change the password. Or are you saying they are opening a new account. If they don't have access to your card details do they do a random search to see what card you hold? I am a bit confused as to how they can do this. Might your card not have been accessed somewhere else? I think that is what I am getting at.

One of the girls over on another site that I posted this has just checked her credit card statement and found a small amount lifted too. I would encourage everyone to check it out. As I said, I couldnt even remember going on that site - it must have been yonks ago and all my private details had been stored on there :(

The crooks often take a small amount first to check the account is still alive.

regarding your bank being on the ball Lyndi, I think most banks and CC companies now have an automatic alert for phone top ups on line or by phone as that is what these people do to check the account they have stolen is active. We had a phone call the other day, immediately we topped up.

Thanks for the warning,Heather.

I have bought details from the brs site,but at present I have used up all my credit on there.I live in Australia and found what I thought was a dodgy transaction which I hadn't made on my last credit card statement.It appeared to originate in the UK,and as I haven't been over there for at least 7 or 8 months, I was suspicious. I queried it with the bank-it was a very small amount-$5.56 ,to be exact- I got a letter from the bank the other day saying that the amount of my "disputed transaction" had been credited to my account,so I was right,it was dodgy!

It just goes to show-certain "safe" and "secure" sites are not that at all!

I will change my password on that site.I didn't realise that my dodgy
transaction was from my details leaked from there.

Thank you,Heather,for passing that on.

Margot.

Phew, my bank is on the ball!
I had a letter today from their special investigations team, and thought it was to do with all the details stolen from Irish Family Forum.
Turned out it was just that this week I topped up my phone online instead of when doing weekly shop!
Good to know they are looking out for unusual transactions and acting so fast.

This is it, I cant even remember signing up to the forum, but obviously I must have years ago. I do hope people arent ignoring it as one of the usual scams as they could have their identity stolen.

Keep an eye on your credit/bank statements as these people have got thousands and thousands of names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses - all they need to steal your identity.

I had the email as well, but had forgotten my password anyway.
Had to create a new one so I could check what information they held.
Have now had email confirming that my account has been removed from database as requested.

Thank you for your post Heather, as the original email was in my junk and I had forgotten ever opening an account, so without this post would probably have deleted email and thought nothing more about it.

I sent an email to the Irish family forum yesterday asking them to remove all my personal details from their site. They sent me a mail today saying they dont hold credit card details so there is no need to worry. ERM, someone can use your personal information to do whatever they want, like apply for mortgages, loans, change your passwords on any of your sites, basically identity theft and they dont seem to realise this or be worried at all. IF they had sent those mails out 2 weeks ago when it actually happened I bet Id not had my credit card skimmed.

Whoever stole those thousands of names, addresses and personal details are sitting there now working out what to do with them

BBC NEWS:


Internet forum database 'hacked'
Boards.ie screengrab
Boards.ie has gone offline as a result of the attack

Irish internet forum Boards.ie has reported an attack on its user database which could affect thousands of users.

In a statement it confirmed that "an unauthorised source" from outside Ireland accessed its database server.

It urged members who use the same username/email and password on other sites to change passwords.

"Part of the database which includes our members' usernames, email addresses and obfuscated passwords was accessed," Boards.ie said on its homepage.

The site started life as a forum for the computer game Quake in 1998 and has more than 500 forums on a range of topics.

According to the most recent ABC internet traffic statistics in November, Boards.ie had more than 20m page views, averaging more than 1.1m page views a day.

Tom Murphy, co-founder of Boards.ie said, in a statement, that like all large sites they were "regularly the target for disruption and take continual actions to proactively protect data".

He said that the attack "was completely unprecedented despite our rigorous security measures and while we have no idea if this data will be used for any malicious reasons, we felt it vital to tell you this immediately".

Boards.ie says it is changing all user passwords and has notified Irish police, the Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes and an independent security consultant.

Mr Hawkes said the attack should be taken as a warning to internet users to create different passwords for different websites.

He said his office would be investigating the security breach but he praised the company for pulling the website immediately and alerting its members.