Someone tried to steal all my money

[d000hg]

My card has a system where I have to use a password when buying stuff online, some scheme run by Visa.
Anyhow, today I got an email from my bank "thanks for changing your password". I figured it was probably phishing and ignored it.
Later today I found my card was not working when trying to pay for dinner... phoned the bank in a panic and apparently someone tried to make a payment to a Muslim charity, presumably as a test with my stolen details.

I can't figure out how anyone would get my online password. I have never used it outside of the house, or on a shared PC and it's not a password I use on forums or something stupid. The only thing that's changed is I'm using wireless O2 broadband while my main account gets switched after moving house.

Luckily, my card got blocked because the bank's system auto-flagged the transaction as suspicious. Would have been nice if they'd phoned me instead of blocking my card though... I sometimes don't use this card for weeks at a time.

Eek.

[d000hg]

Now I want to check all my other bank accounts in case they got compromised and didn't notice... but I'm scared to do it using online banking in case I give the details away in the process.

The only other remotely weird thing that's happened is my IM client popped up a "you logged in on another computer" screen the other day. But my connection keeps dying on wireless so I figured it was just a IP change that confused it.

Feeling a trifle paranoid...

[SantaClaus]

Now I want to check all my other bank accounts in case they got compromised and didn't notice... but I'm scared to do it using online banking in case I give the details away in the process.

The only other remotely weird thing that's happened is my IM client popped up a "you logged in on another computer" screen the other day. But my connection keeps dying on wireless so I figured it was just a IP change that confused it.

Feeling a trifle paranoid...

This sounds very dodgy. Someone might have installed a key logger or spyware on your machine and got hold of your Yahoo password and who knows what else. The only time my Yahoo IM gives me that message is when I log on another machine.

Get your machine scanned right away with a spyware removal program and then change all your passwords.

[d000hg]

Of course, I can't buy any anti-spyware software online...

[Gonzo]

Of course, I can't buy any anti-spyware software online...

Download SuperAntiSpyware free edition.

That has served me perfectly well when I have been called in to sort other people's computers out.

[TykeMerc]

Download SuperAntiSpyware free edition.

That has served me perfectly well when I have been called in to sort other people's computers out.

Or Spybot S&D, also free and not bad.

Please say that you already have decent Anti Virus installed, working and have scanned thoroughly today.

[SuperZ]

Had exactly the same problem a few days ago. Funny thing is, I haven`t used the card much lately. I used it at a petrol station two weeks previously but am sure I never handed the card over, just stuck it in the device facing me. The only thing I was forced to do was to add the card to my eBay account recently because I had exceeded the ebay limit or something so had to add my credit card to my account to enable me to continue selling my sh** on eBay. Doing this allowed auto payment of ebay seller account charges. The dodgy credit card payments started a day after eBay took the first payment from the card strangely enough, which was a few weeks after I lodged the card details with them

I have mentioned my suspicions to eBay but am not sure how it happened.

Two fake charities took small amounts of money from my card which I expect would of turned out to be big payments if these initial payments succeeded but luckily Egg called me about the payments.

I have a new card now and old one is binned but I am concerned how they got my payment details. PC scanned all okay.

[NickFitz]

This definitely sounds like you've ended up with a keylogger on your system. If that is the case, the only safe course of action is a clean install, then a deep search for anything such as nasties that have been implanted in your BIOS or other obscure places.

If something has got onto your system that can do keylogging and upload its findings, it's comparatively trivial for it to download a dodgy BIOS update and put it in place for the next time you reboot and every reboot thereafter, including after the re-install of the OS. No re-install of Windows/OS X/Linux will cure that, hence the need for a deep search. I believe the tools suggested earlier in this thread should take care of this, but you ought to check that they promise such protection to be sure.

[NickFitz]

More on "Verified by Visa" from The Register - DO read on to page 2, for that is where the meat is. However, the salient point is clear on the first page of the story:

Both VbyV and SecureCode are based on 3DSecure, a name that hints at the introduction of some kind of three-factor authentication scheme. But unlike robust authentication techniques, hackers don't have a hardware token generating one-time passwords to worry about - it's just more of the same. And since card details + CVV number is no longer considered as secure enough then it's hard to see how card details + CVV number + VbyV login is any more robust.

[d000hg]

All these anti-spyware apps have free/premium editions. I have no problem shelling out a whole $30(!) for something decent, but is there much to be gained over the free versions?


If any problems remain, I'd be half-tempted to just buy a new PC, I'm almost due one anyway and since I work from home it's a relatively small outlay. I could ram it full of security software before copying any files on from current PC. I'm never 100% confident that any software can properly clean a 'dirty' PC any more than you can take a 5-year old Windows installation and get it working as fast as it did when new.