Tantalus42
Posts: 51
Joined: 1/27/2006 Status: offline
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Moral of the story: never click on ANYTHING a friend sends unless you are actively talking to them and are sure its them. Never click on random links that purport to sign you into something (yahoo, google, hotmail, etc.) without carefully checking the URL in the address bar. And if you do log onto something like this and you are kicked back into your own photo page or briefcase or whatever, immediately assume the worst and change your password. It won't hurt anything (other then if you can't remember the new one *grin*) and can only serve to protect you. And feline, I'm sure you're positive when you say you've been careful. I'm equally sure someone got your password somehow and used your account to phish your friends. It may have happened months or even a year ago, or maybe they managed to get a trojan on your system that is logging your keystrokes. But you've changed your password now and that should be the end of it for the time being (of course, if it happens again then you should start looking at what may have secretly installed itself on your system that your anti-spyware and anti-virus programs aren't finding). You don't have to feel defensive about this, I'm sure you take all precautions to secure your computer and make sure your router/firewall is working properly. But it happens, even to the best of us. The Internet is a lovely fun place to hang out. Unfortunately its all too often an easy place to scam folks, even those who are computer adept. My darling wife fell for this about two months ago, but luckily I was in the same room and she asked "why did it do this" when she logged into a page a friend supposedly sent her via IM.
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