# Hacking into Email/ Home computer



## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

i'm not very up to speed with computers and i know its possible to hack computers but the how to's i don't know.. i hope someone can help me understand if this is possible.

1. my oh had his email account hacked into
2. he had 2 pictures on the home computer that he deleted (emptied recycling bin too)
3. supposed hacker got into our computer and got these pictures and emailed them from his yahoo email to another email address
4. i ran scans to see if there was any access into our home computer and there was no open ports or access points 
5. work collegue of oh admitted it was him+friend that did it for a laugh (they opened up an acc with an escort agency and posted these pics on it with phone numbers and other details)
6. am i just an idiot or is this just not possible?

thanks, i hope someone can clarify for me.


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## car (20 Apr 2007)

If I understand it right you think someone hacked your pc, trawled through deleted files,  recovered 2 photos, got yer fellas email password and posted the photos on an escort site with his phone number.  

Not impossible but not very likely.  Trying to not be cynical here but quiz the OH a bit more strongly on this one.

To help us further troubleshoot, any chance we could see the photos?


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## setemupjoe (20 Apr 2007)

everything is possible! but unlikely,is your oh on the level ? sounds a bit fantastic to me,were the pics of a sexual nature of you or him or both ?he may be getting mates to cover his tracks or maybe its all true ! what do you think ?


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## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

yes i have been quizzing him, and he totally denies being any part of it (of course he would duh!)
i know he would not be the sort of guy that would give out his number on a website, he wont even answer a call from a private number.
the pics were of him, one showing his This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language - hense why it is so unbelieveable that these deleted pics ended up being emailed and then posted on a site.

**if it wasn't him, i know he's not happy that i won't take his word for it, but thats just tough cos there is not evidence of any intruder.  wouldn't a hacker even if its not malicious eg to wreck your computer leave some sort of evidence behind?


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## sandrabing (20 Apr 2007)

Similar situation, found over 100 photos on my PC of Teens/animals/OAPs in very compromising positions. I know I didnt download them ! The thing was when I checked dates/times they were downloaded I wasnt home. Never figured out how the person got access but yep it must be possible


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## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

sandrabing said:


> Similar situation, found over 100 photos on my PC of Teens/animals/OAPs in very compromising positions. I know I didnt download them ! The thing was when I checked dates/times they were downloaded I wasnt home. Never figured out how the person got access but yep it must be possible


 
yeh, the email was sent at 12.50am (he was in bed)
the escort thing was set up at times when he didn't have access to his computer eg lunch time and was out of the building and comments posted when he was out also....


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## room305 (20 Apr 2007)

Maybe they didn't hack the computer just the web-based email account? Which they could have done by guessing his password. Is it an absolute definite the hackers would need to access the computer to get the pictures?

The good thing about Yahoo is they send the IP address in the clear so he can log into the account, check any emails they sent from his account and get an idea where they were sent from. Or you could do it, if you can access his email. PM if you need help.


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## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

room305 said:


> Maybe they didn't hack the computer just the web-based email account? Which they could have done by guessing his password. Is it an absolute definite the hackers would need to access the computer to get the pictures?
> 
> The good thing about Yahoo is they send the IP address in the clear so he can log into the account, check any emails they sent from his account and get an idea where they were sent from. Or you could do it, if you can access his email. PM if you need help.


 
the reason i think it was surely a hacker (presuming it wasn't oh) is cause this work buddy said he could see credit card details stored on the hard drive, internet purchase (i buy off ebay and stuff, oh never buys online), conversations (i presume chat rooms) and other stuff...i'm afraid that the other stuff is my personal bits and bobs that i don't want anyone to see AND if he took oh pics...what about mine.

i did access his yahoo and seen the email notification from this escort place...used my imagination and found his profile..the rest is above..


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## Guest120 (20 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> yeh, the email was sent at 12.50am (he was in bed)
> the escort thing was set up at times when he didn't have access to his computer eg lunch time and was out of the building and comments posted when he was out also....


Just be aware that the times mean absolutely nothing, they can be easily misinterpreted or faked.


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## z108 (20 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> i'm not very up to speed with computers and i know its possible to hack computers but the how to's i don't know.. i hope someone can help me understand if this is possible.
> 
> 1. my oh had his email account hacked into
> 2. he had 2 pictures on the home computer that he deleted (emptied recycling bin too)
> ...




Bullet point 3 is in conflict with bullet point 5.

My line of thinking would be if the work colleague admits/confesses to it then this eliminates the possibility of a hacker. Why would they admit to it?

This admission in my mind leaves the 2 possibilities either he did it himself  and they are covering for him  or they are assholes/bullies who should be disciplined according to whatever codes exist in his work. Posting someones number in conjunction with a picture where it may be intercepted by all manner of strange people is an unacceptable invasion of privacy and defamation and Im sure its illegal. 

IMO it goes beyond the boundaries of a practical joke.


With regards to point 6 . Whoever posted the personal details is the idiot.


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## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

Point 3 - was oh reasoning for how this all happened

after 2 days of phone calls and txts from perverts, the collegue rang oh and said 'ha ha, got you, it was all me, me and a mate hacked your computer and did blah blah'.  imo, if he did this he is still a hacker - would you not agree?

i have suggestion about going to the police, i'm so peeved that my stuff could have been taken or even accessed, but that would probably be a long drawn out process.

is there a hackers programme that could allow you to do all this?


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## HotdogsFolks (20 Apr 2007)

As someone who works as a software developer, and who worked within tech support for about 5 years (witnessed all kinds of weird stuff), the concept of a hacker hacking into your PC and doing things like this is way off the mark.

There is another simple explanation.


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## car (20 Apr 2007)

> Point 3 - was oh reasoning for how this all happened


..but the OH had previously deleted the photos.   There is a considerable amount of time involved in recovering deleted files, and thats if you know where they are, what they're names are, whats in them and even then they might not be recoverable.  
If its his mates in work, ask them how they recovered the files, what software did they use, did they find any other files and why they picked those particular files, if the files were called "me_in_an_embarassing_nude_pose.jpg" it would explain a bit further though..
ask them how they logged in to the pc, what software did they use to "hack" it?


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## ClubMan (20 Apr 2007)

HotdogsFolks said:


> There is another simple explanation.


Indeed - in  the absence of other evidence the simplest explanation is the most likely one.


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## room305 (20 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> yeh, the email was sent at 12.50am (he was in bed)
> the escort thing was set up at times when he didn't have access to his computer eg lunch time and was out of the building and comments posted when he was out also....



Did you check the IP address on the email? If it is in a block registered to a different broadband provider than yourselves then it might point to something suspicious.

I am however, on the basis of what is presented here so far, inclined to think it unlikely your computer was hacked.


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## KathScan (20 Apr 2007)

How did you discover all this was supposed to have happened?


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## ninsaga (20 Apr 2007)

It looks to me as though your 'oh' just got caught


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## JMR (20 Apr 2007)

If he posted these pictures himself, whuch seems to be what a lot of people here are thinking, then he obviously would have wanted his picture up on the website and would have kept it to himself.

Did he tell you about this himself in a "how the bloody hell did this happen" kind of way or did you just happen to find out.

If you just found out, well then...........


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## susie1 (20 Apr 2007)

I do agree with you all, i'm not convinced that he is not involved *somewhere* down the line, if not at the begining.  i just thought that before i attack again, i'd suss out if these things are possible..but yes it does seem very extreme and highly unlikely.


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## JMR (20 Apr 2007)

The key to this is the manner in which you found out about it.

I would not claim to be a computer expert but I would believe that the explanation he provided is possible, however unlikely it may be.
If it is possible at all it may be true.

If he told you about this himself, you have to ask yourself why would he post pictures of himself on a dodgy website and then tell you about it?

However if the mates being hackers story only came about after you discovered the pictures / heard a dodgy phone call then you dont need to be Einstein to work it out....


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## Vanilla (20 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> i did access his yahoo and seen the email notification from this escort place...used my imagination and found his profile..the rest is above..


 
OP has told us how she found out?


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## KathScan (20 Apr 2007)

Could you get someone to contact him as if they had seen his profile on the website and see what happens?


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## Vanilla (20 Apr 2007)

LOL. This is getting to be interesting. Who knew there were so many amateur private detectives on AAM.


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## someanne (20 Apr 2007)

how did you discover this had happened?

was it after you found the mail or before?

i'm lmao here

S.


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## extopia (20 Apr 2007)

Yeah, there's another explanation alright. Forget about the cover-up and focus on the "crime."


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## ninsaga (20 Apr 2007)

extopia said:


> Yeah, there's another explanation alright. Forget about the cover-up and focus on the "crime."



  ... yep guilty methinks melord


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## MugsGame (20 Apr 2007)

> focus on the crime.



Yeah, maybe this is all an April fool to punish you for reading his email.

But seriously, it is possible for someone to have accessed the PC remotely and retrieved the files. Fairly unlikely though, from what you've described.


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## room305 (20 Apr 2007)

MugsGame said:


> Yeah, maybe this is all an April fool to punish you for reading his email.
> 
> But seriously, it is possible for someone to have accessed the PC remotely and retrieved the files. Fairly unlikely though, from what you've described.



As I said, if the OP wants to rule this out it is a simple matter of retrieving the email that was sent, checking the full headers and copying the sender IP address. Put it into an engine like the one provided here and it will give you an approximate location as well as the ISP provider.

If the ISP provider was different to your own well then her oh may have a case.


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## MugsGame (20 Apr 2007)

> if the OP wants to rule this out it is a simple matter of retrieving the email that was sent


Disagree. Hacker could happen to use the same ISP. Or could have sent it from their PC using remote control.


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## car (20 Apr 2007)

We really need to see the actual pictures before an accurate assessment can be made.


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## ClubMan (20 Apr 2007)

Hack into his _Amazon _account and see if he purchased this book recently:


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## extopia (20 Apr 2007)

If the sequence of events started with susie's discovery of the "confirmation" notice from the "dating" site (while reading her partner's email), a hacker-free scenario begins to present itself...


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## z108 (20 Apr 2007)

If you really want to get to the bottom of this, then go for the guy who confessed to doing it. Initiate proceedings to have him prosecuted / disciplined by police/employer. Then see how far his loyalty towards your oh stretches and if his  story changes.

I'd  make him pay in any case. As a practical joke its immature and stupid and an adult who posted deserves some consequences.

Are you all still friends after this ?

A point I dont get  though is which phone number was posted ? The house phone which is accessed and answered by both you and your oh  or your other halfs mobile number? This is potentially significant.


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## Z100 (20 Apr 2007)

Never mind the OP's query, I want to know more about:



sandrabing said:


> Similar situation, found over 100 photos on my PC of Teens/animals/*OAPs *in very compromising positions.


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## athens2004 (20 Apr 2007)

Why dont you put some picture on your computer, delet it and ask them to find it for you as proof


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## Blinder (20 Apr 2007)

Sounds completely impausible!  And from the fact that you found out this story after checking his email without him knowing, I guess there is a trust issue there already.

So either you decide to have to decide to believe him and let it go or you dig deeper (as long as you are prepared for the possibility of an outcome that you do not like).


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## zag (20 Apr 2007)

The way I see it . . .

If someone in my office was going to play this trick I can think of a million easier ways to go about it.  First would be to take a photo of the relevant person.

Then proceed with the rest of the plan - there is no need for anyone to hack into your computer.

And *if* they somehow managed to get into your computer (ignoring the fact they would have to locate it first) how on earth would they know of the existence of the photo to start with, let alone know what it was called and that it was in the recycle bin.

The only possible way I think it could have been a 3rd party would be where either of you said in conversation that you had this particular photo (maybe it was nude, maybe weird, whatever, but worthy of comment to a friend) and someone then got the idea of the scheme based on the existence of that photo.  Maybe (like <1% probablity) that person had enough tech skills to locate your computer out there on the internet, exploit it and gain access and track down the photo.  If I was a betting man I know which way I would be going with this one.

However, it is vital to understand that in cases like this there is nothing other than circumstantial evidence since IP address details don't prove who actually was using the machine at the time.  At best it can give you a good indication when combined with other info (e.g. I think we were asleep at that time) and at worst it can lead you down the wrong tracks to the wrong conclusion.

z


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## Pique318 (20 Apr 2007)

well remember that if you register to any site/forum etc, they normally send you a 'confirmation email' to the email address provided.

This could be the email, no ? Or was the email a confirmation of having his Gluteus Maximus posted ?


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## sandrabing (20 Apr 2007)

Bushfire,
What can i say, I cant really elaborate on them, I only opened one of the images when I discovered them, the descriptions of the rest were enough for me !


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## someanne (20 Apr 2007)

i been following this thread all day and it's been keeping me greatly amused - hilarious stuff

S.


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## susie1 (21 Apr 2007)

ok, i'll elaborate a bit more and tell me what you's think.

oh, let his phone at home, i answered 2 calls from men looking for oh's computer name. i said no he's not here, call back - there was no weirdness in the calls. then a message came in, *hi, im 35, 6ft, slim, clean, looking for a man to service me, rates? can you acomodate?* i was like wtf..

oh came home, i didn't mention the txt. then he read it and said wtf is going on, who's this blah blah and showed me the txt. i said i dunno, weird.

next day, he says emails were sent from his yahoo by someone and he was getting weirdo calls and txt all day.

i came home and was logging into my yahoo and seen he had not logged himself out from the night before, that was where i found the message from the escort place and the sent pics. i found his profile on the site, with the pics posted. pics were one of his ass and another of his chest/side.

when he came in, i asked well any more developments with the calls etc or emails, he said no, nothing. so i said, wtf are you doing taking pics of yourself...he was like eh no i didn't, so i showed him. he came up with a crappy excuse of a spot on his ass he was trying to see.

i went on to say, i found your profile etc and he was no way, who did that. he said he was trying to email other pics to an email but it woudn't send. admitted he could have sent by mistake the wrong pics to a guy in work.

so thats the history of it.

yesterday, the guys in work said they got the ass pics and posted them on the escort site they set up a few days previous and these pics were a bonus. they all had a great laugh at oh, but i'm still not happy, still think i'm being bullshi*ed.
i will speak with the lads and see what they have to say.

glad a few of you got a laugh. at least my personal stuff didn't get accessed. ps, i will get another phone chip and txt him and see what happens, if he's acting up, i will shove more than a pic up his This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language and he won't be enjoying it either..lol


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## room305 (21 Apr 2007)

MugsGame said:


> Disagree. Hacker could happen to use the same ISP. Or could have sent it from their PC using remote control.



I think you are missing the point. If the IP address _is_ from a different ISP provider then clearly it wasn't sent by her oh. If the IP address is within the same block as their ISP then no new information is garnered.

Either way it all sounds a bit elaborate. For the purposes of this practical joke why did her oh's friends need to hack his email address? Why not just set up a new one themselves?

Have you checked the site susie1? Some of these sites require you to pay to register. If there is a corresponding charge on his credit card, then I think we can consider it case closed.


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## someanne (21 Apr 2007)

a relevant point is that if he didn't log off his Yahoo account at home, he may also have forgotton to it at work, which would explain how 'someone' could have accessed it to set up a registration with the agency.

if he had the pics in his yahoo account from posting them to someone else, that is where the 'friends' would have gotten them.

susie, i too would get another phone and text him to see what happens.

*what kind of agency was he set up with* is another relevant point

S.


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## Blinder (21 Apr 2007)

So the story has changed 



susie1 said:


> ... he said he was trying to email other pics to an email but it woudn't send...



In that case all someone had to do was access he's email account ( not ,hack into his home pc') to get access to the emails as if would have uploaded them to his email account in order to try to send them. their would be a mial in the sent items box. If he didn't log off they wouldn't even have to log in.

But why then would they say that they have hacked into your home pc?

ETA:


susie1 said:


> ps, i will get another phone chip and txt him and see what happens, if he's acting up,


You either trust him or you don't. I don't think game playing is going to do anyone any good, is it?


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## someanne (21 Apr 2007)

but it may help to bring into the open any underlying issues


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## rob30 (21 Apr 2007)

This sounds quite a serious and a distressing situation. If he is sleeping around, are you protecting yourself?


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## extopia (22 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> he came up with a crappy excuse of a spot on his ass he was trying to see.



That's a good one! Fair play to him for thinking on his feet!

Have you found any evidence of the email to the friends at work with the "wrong" pictures attached? Or did he delete that too?


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## zag (22 Apr 2007)

Further question - is it actually his body in the pictures you saw ?

If someone was playing a trick on him, do you really think they would go to all the trouble of finding a picture of *his* butt rather than using one they found on the web . . . and pretending it was his ?

On a seperate note - I think you have enough information in the posts so far to give you something to think about, but everyone (including me) is working off a partial set of information.  There could be other factors which you aren't aware of and we aren't aware of which might change the situation.  I would suggest that for something which might be as serious as this you should only take the advice of anonymous 3rd parties (again, including me) as a partial factor in any decisions you make.

It is also important to remember that the original post was looking for information on the IT front, but I think the issue now may well have moved past being an IT concern.

z


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## aircobra19 (22 Apr 2007)

HotdogsFolks said:


> As someone who works as a software developer, and who worked within tech support for about 5 years (witnessed all kinds of weird stuff), the concept of a hacker hacking into your PC and doing things like this is way off the mark.
> 
> There is another simple explanation.



Thats my thinking too.


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## ClubMan (22 Apr 2007)

susie1 said:


> i found his profile on the site, with the pics posted. pics were one of his ass and another of his chest/side.
> 
> so i said, wtf are you doing taking pics of yourself...he was like eh no i didn't, so i showed him. he came up with a crappy excuse of a spot on his ass he was trying to see.
> 
> ...


This story sounds totally implausible to me and from what you've posted it sounds like he's been totally busted. What do *YOU *think at this stage?


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## liteweight (23 Apr 2007)

Are you sure he took the pictures of his own ass? Maybe he's out and about MOONlighting?


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## KathScan (23 Apr 2007)

Can you access his phone records and see if he returned any of these calls or texts?


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## z108 (24 Apr 2007)

Kathscan is right . If his call records show he corresponds with strangers a lot then you haave him .


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## z107 (24 Apr 2007)

How much evidence do you need?

A) His mates did this as a practical joke. (Are you running XP, with a firewall?). If this is the case, has your OH suggested any type of revenge, as would be a natural reaction.

B) He's just been caught using the services of an escort agency.


(BTW, If I wanted to examine a spot on my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language, I'd probably opt for a mirror)


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## kellysayers (25 Apr 2007)

*why did he have photo's of his This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language on the computer?* why did he take them? or did he say someone followed him into the loo, then hacked into his computer and put the photo's on, then hacked into his e mail and sent the photo's PLEASE !!!!!!! what a chancer!


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## ClubMan (25 Apr 2007)

umop3p!sdn said:


> (BTW, If I wanted to examine a spot on my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language, I'd probably opt for a mirror)


Maybe it was a particularly scenic spot and so merited a photo?


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