"Do you want a makeover?"
"If you want me to raise your salary say 444!"
"Giving out a free account."
You've all probably seen something like this. You head into a public chat place and someone's offering to do something so you get more money, become nicer-looking, or something along those lines. They might seem really nice, but they might also be hackers. For those of you who don't know, hackers or password stealers are people who get you to give them your personal information, like your password, so they can break into your account and take it over. I've seen quite a few of these speech bubbles in Whyville, but I wondered if other people knew about the hidden tricks it might have.
So I started by interviewing ashtinth5:
dubblplay: Have you ever had your account hacked?
ashtinth5: No, but I was really close! Someone wanted to get on my account!
dubblplay: What were they offering to you?
ashtinth5: They wanted to make me pretty.
dubblplay: Did they seem like a nice, normal Whyvillian?
ashtinth5: Yea, she just started talking to me nicely, then she asked to make me pretty. I was like, "Are you allowed to do that?" and she said, "Yeah," so I was having a hard time believing that.
dubblplay: What do you think would be the most effective way to hack?
ashtinth5: Um, probably if you're a Newbie and someone pretends to be your friend for over a month and then they ask if you would let them help get you lots of clams, but they would need to have you password and stuff. And that's what I think the worst way to get hacked is someone pretends to be you friend.
dubblplay: Don't worry - I'm not going to do that to anyone. =) One more question - how can you prevent hacking?
ashtinth5: Well I talked to a y-helper to see if what the girl said was okay and she said no, so what I did was:
-went to a y-helper (they know pretty much everything)
-if the y-helper says it's not okay tell the person who's doing it if it's an o.k. thing to do
-if the person refuses to tell the truth do a 911 report on them and vaporize them so you will never see them again! That's how to "protect" your clams!
dubblplay: Okay. Thanks for your time!
ashtinth5: You're welcome.
Next, I asked shopfever for her opinions on hacking:
dubblplay: Have you ever had your account hacked?
shopfever: No. It hasn't. But people beg me for clams all the time because their account has been hacked. It gets old.
dubblplay: Has anyone ever offered you something in exchange for your personal information?
shopfever: Yes. On my other account I was making a club and I gave them the club "password" to get in and I said "Can I trust you?" And they said "Yes. I'll even give you a makeover. Can I have your password?"
dubblplay: Wow. Did they seem like a nice, normal person at first?
shopfever: Yes they did. But then they turned into a hacking creep.
dubblplay: What do you think would be the most effective way to hack?
shopfever: By asking for a makeover. If I was going to hack someone's account )which I would never do) . . . that would be the way I would do it.
dubblplay: I know you wouldn't. Last question: How would you help prevent hacking?
shopfever: Maybe make a poll at the poll booth talking about no hacking. I actually already did.
dubblplay: I'll have to check that out. Thank you for your time!
shopfever: No problem. Bye.
Next, I decided I wanted to talk to someone who had their account hacked, so I talked to billyfan7:
dubblplay: Have you ever had your account hacked?
billyfan7: Well not this account but another one has just when I started Whyville. So I just made this one!
dubblplay: How did you get your account hacked?
billyfan7: I'm not too sure but I know that they just y-mailed me one day and said to go to this site and then it said to just type in my username. I don't know how they figured out my password . . . I thought it was pretty hard but I guess not. Then they just robbed all my stuff on it and I was left with nothing!
dubblplay: That's really weird! Have you taken any steps to protect your new account?
billyfan7: Well yeah I don't go to any of those sites anymore just to see what they're about and I don't give out the province that I live in I just say I'm from Canada. That seems to have helped so far.
dubblplay: Yeah - I agree that probably helps. One more question - what would you suggest to others to prevent their accounts from being hacked?
billyfan7: Well just do what I did and if someone asks for personal information never tell them. Also don't ever buy accounts from people in the trading post because 1) there probably is no account and 2)if there is an account they'll just hack it so there is really no point to do that. I hope that helps!
dubblplay: Those are great suggestions! Thank you for your time.
billyfan7: You're welcome.
There you have it. There is more than one way to get into your account and have everything stolen from it.
Just remember some helpful tips:
-NEVER give out your password to anyone or for any reason
-Keep most of your clams in your savings account in Bankinter (that way they'll have a much harder time getting your money)
-Pick a hard-to-guess password and don't share it with any of your friends
-Sign up for the "Forgot your Password?" system so you can get back in even if your account gets hacked
Keep it safe!
