I think I'm being robbed..

HummuH1 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:23

I'm wise to phishing emails. Computer security is up to date and maintained by our IT company who I have some faith in. No use of cards in odd places other than at a couple of motorway service stations recently. I have run loads of different scans on the PC and nothing untoward is being found.

I've had two phonecalls this morning, on a direct line which not many people have access to, enquiring about loan applications I've made through a 3rd party website. The total of these claims is c. £20k.

Needless to say I'm papping it, as whoever is applying in my name seems to have an alarming amount of personal info. I honestly have no idea how they've obtained it.

I've closed down my internet banking and cancelled all cards. Not sure what to do about my passwords as I'm no longer happy that I can type without it being seen/cloned. My Bank and Credit Card companies have been informed.

Are there any other security measures I should be taking? This might sound daft, but should I be informing the police? I really have no idea.

I'm in contact with the company who referred the loan application but I have little faith this will deliver anything.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Amleto · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:26

sounsd well dodge.

UncleRuckus · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:27

Somebody could have been going through your rubbish bins mate? Make sure sensitive paper work is shredded.

RoboCod · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:27

Notify the police

DiCe! · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:27

passwords look for an on screen keyboard, you use the mouse to click the letters, no way of physically typing them.

Django x2 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:27

Keylogger, will pretty much go undetected. Have you checked for any odd services running?

Scrutinize · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:30

Have you actually checked your credit file to see if there have been searches against your name.

If not join up with equifax and experian for the credit check (not credit report), free for 30 days and you can view immediately assuming you have a payment debit/credit card left to use.

lookitsjonno · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:30

i have suspicions about mine also. facebook emailed me yesterday to say someone logged in from an unknown ip in manchester - certainly wasnt me but someone has my password somehow.

i had my hosts file hijacked not long ago, could there be a risk that people have got my information from that?

RomanNose · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:37

lookitsjonno said:
i have suspicions about mine also. facebook emailed me yesterday to say someone logged in from an unknown ip in manchester - certainly wasnt me but someone has my password somehow.

i had my hosts file hijacked not long ago, could there be a risk that people have got my information from that?

Yes, you could have been pharmed.

B@Th*nG · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:42

do you live alone?

B@

Burnsy2023 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:42

Lucero said:
Keylogger, will pretty much go undetected. Have you checked for any odd services running?

This will need to get moved to Windows, but download the following tools from sysinternals:

Process Explorer
Autoruns

We can see if there's anything there that shouldn't be.

My suspicions is that it's probably not computer related but old fashioned ID theft. Oh, and your're not being robbed. Robbery requires violence or at least the fear of it.

HummuH1 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:49

UncleRuckus said:
Somebody could have been going through your rubbish bins mate? Make sure sensitive paper work is shredded.

That's the only way I can think they've got the info but the other half is usually quite good about shredding. We need to be better obviously.

Captain Planet said:
Notify the police

Have now done that. They cannot do anything until a crime is committed i.e. when someone tries to sign/complete the loan application fraudulently. At that point, it has to be referred to the local force by the company providing the loan.

Lucero said:
Keylogger, will pretty much go undetected. Have you checked for any odd services running?

As best as I can using what's available to me and the IT guys. Nothing obvious but I wouldn't expect it to be obvious I guess.

Nightmare

HummuH1 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:51

B@Th*nG said:
do you live alone?

B@

No. Are you insinuating it may be my cat or girlfriend of 15 years?

B@Th*nG · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:52

HummuH1 said:
No. Are you insinuating it may be my cat or girlfriend of 15 years?

my money's on the cat.

or should that be your money?

B@

HummuH1 · 27 Oct 2011 at 12:53

Burnsy2023 said:
This will need to get moved to Windows, but download the following tools from sysinternals:

Process Explorer
Autoruns

We can see if there's anything there that shouldn't be.

My suspicions is that it's probably not computer related but old fashioned ID theft. Oh, and your're not being robbed. Robbery requires violence or at least the fear of it.

Top man cheers. I'll do that and make a new post there.

Odd thing: when on IE, it has just started redirecting to random websites. Hmmmm....

HummuH1 · 27 Oct 2011 at 13:01

B@Th*nG said:
my money's on the cat.

or should that be your money?

B@

LoL, never trusted the sneaky moggy!

Clav · 27 Oct 2011 at 13:05

Just do a full format and reinstall it's the only way to be sure (or nuke it from orbit obviously)

DiCe! · 27 Oct 2011 at 13:18

Clav said:
Just do a full format and reinstall it's the only way to be sure (or nuke it from orbit obviously)

Fire, its the only answer.

Mark M · 27 Oct 2011 at 13:18

HummuH1 said:
Top man cheers. I'll do that and make a new post there.

Odd thing: when on IE, it has just started redirecting to random websites. Hmmmm....

Definitely something dodgy going on. Full format I would say to ensure its clean.

R5GTT · 27 Oct 2011 at 13:23

It's quite scary that they have your personal information to apply for the loans.

Roughly 1 in 4 people that I know have had money taken from their bank accounts at some point and it seems a regular occurrence these days. I put it down to online shopping/banking mostly as well as obviously the odd dodgy shop or petrol station. With the amount of spyware and keyloggers it's not surprising anyway.

Interestingly I had it happen to me once and it was a brand new card. I'd received my new card and hadn't used it anywhere apart from the cash machine once to activate it.
There was nobody about, no sneaky cameras from what I could see and no dodgy looking thing in the slot (yes I always have a good look

). Unyet I got a phone call saying a few hundred pounds had been withdrawn using a cash machine in hong kong. This was just a week after receiving the card.

How could they have possibly cloned a brand new card?

Definitely do a re format on your PC if you can and to be certain.