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Have you had your computer hijacked?

n400

This happened to me yesterday. It doesn't turn on for a very long time, and then it asks for me to log on with a strange username and password. I obviously did not try entering any of my passwords into the thing.

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else?

It could have been from downloading torrents, using unsecured networks without password-protecting my desktop, or any of a number of things, but I think it was from a facebook ad.

I know people who think facebook is fun for some reason (it's not. it's completely boring) and send me messages like "how are you doing" and "come to my party" and "do we have compatible movie tastes" and assorted boring nonsense. Yesterday, I got yet another email notification about some dumb party and finally logged on to see if there was anything fun or worthwhile in several months of unread messages (there wasn't).

Since I never use facebook, I do not know what the menu bar looks like and clicked on something else, a fake menu bar, hoping to see my messages. This sent me to one of those stupid secret crush websites that would not let me close the window. I am never using facebook again. I am too stupid to use it, and it isn't any fun anyway, and it's a cult.

 
Feb 18, 09 10:29 am
citizen

I like you already, n400.

Sorry to hear about your troubles... I've never heard of that kind of takeover. Terrifying, and a cautionary tale. Some of the very things that make computing and connectivity so great can also be used by the dark side, unfortunately.

Best of luck on your restoration. And I always suspected that Facebook was nefarious.

Feb 18, 09 11:11 am  · 
 · 
Antisthenes

sounds like one of those windows holes we hear so much about

patched to latest?

Feb 18, 09 11:45 am  · 
 · 
n400

When you have a pop-up that won't let you close the browser, you're supposed to discontinue the application through the task manager, NEVER click the "click here to close" button. I've always known this and have never had a problem like this before, but I just wasn't being paranoid enough yesterday. I had a lot of other tabs open and didn't feel like losing all of them. Now I've lost my portfolio, but hopefully will get into school the first time around and not need it again.

Feb 18, 09 9:20 pm  · 
 · 
Post Nazi

Sorry there buddy. You should probably go out and buy yourself a handgun. That way if it happens again, you can shoot your computer, or better yet, shoot your neighbor, yes the cute one with the buckle shoes and braids, for using facebook.

Feb 19, 09 2:04 pm  · 
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l3wis

for someone to hijack your computer in the way you described via Facebook is highly unlikely, it would entail a really sophisticated keylogging and remote control hack. plus, facebook wouldn't show ads that do crap like that.

what's more feasible is that someone got physical access to your computer and changed the admin password.

Feb 20, 09 11:18 am  · 
 · 
PsyArch

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Feb 20, 09 12:19 pm  · 
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