Questionnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[KvHagedorn]

What a skank.

[RichL]

I'd say give your local Police a call and tell them someone is attempting to blackmail you, and turn over what you have to them.
Assuming they take things seriously enough to talk to his ISP and track him down, I'm sure a visit from his unfreindly local policeman will put a damper on things, esp if this jerk already has some history.

[mutz]

...right. Blackmail is blackmail, and in this case attempted psychological sexual assault and distress.

You are most likely not the only one he is hitting up on. You've just got to prepare well and find the right connection to the police. Preferrably a policeWOMAN.

Internet offences are becoming topical now, you've just got to find somebody who understands it.

[VJ]

Originally posted by The PIT
Install a good virus checker and patch your os with the latest security updates. If has hacked your PC theres nothing much you can do about it now just check that it's clean.

A problem is, that if your computer has been hacked, in a way, you cannot trust any program. We once experienced it at work on a linux box; it turned out the hacker had configured the system to replace some programs (I believe ls - the unix equivalent to dir - was one of them). Basically, in you case this jerk might have put a program somewhere in your windows, which might make future attempts for him easier (by not having to connect to your computer, but by having your computer connecting to his, which most likely will not be caught by a firewall).

I would suggest that you might want to consider re-installing the computer and all software (and to check the files you have in backup or will put in backup).
(perhaps this is being a bit paranoid, but it is the only way to be 100% sure of a clean system)

As to the blackmail issue, he shouldn't get away with this... (but any suggestions on a course of action are a bit out of my league)

Jörg

[KvHagedorn]

A good firewall (i.e. Sygate) should tell you when any program on your comp is trying to connect to the internet.

[Ribbit]

I'm with VJ - a hacked/trojaned machine is a completely untrustworthy machine. Back up what you need to (hope your backup software's ok - perhaps a bootdisk made elsewhere could help - and don't use media that already has something you want to keep on it), figure out what security updates and virus/firewall software you're going to use (but don't download anything until you've reinstalled! - very important!) and do a complete reformat and reinstall. And check your backups before restoring them. It sucks, I know, but it's the only way you can make your computer trustworthy again.

Instant messaging protocols are notoriously insecure, maybe there are other precautions you can take in future beyond the firewall. (I'm thinking equivalent to turning off automatic attachment opening in Outlook.) Anyone have suggestions?

As for what to do with this model lowlife, I'd love to suggest tracking him down yourself and ramming uncooked spaghetti into his ears, but my rational side has to agree with Mutz and RichL.

[VJ]

Well, perhaps a strange suggestion: use "exotic" software. Most hackers will have concentrated on hacking systems that have widely spread software; using a different mailclient (e.g. Eudora, Netscape, ...) and a different browser might make you slightly less vulnerable.
(don't misread this, I'm not bashing Microsoft here, I'm merely stating that most hackers will have "specialized" in hacking Microsoft software)


Jörg

[thop]

while a trojan is not really a hack a reformat is the only way after your computer have been comprised.

a bit OT:
while i dont know how the situation is on windows machines VJ is right about programs on linux machines.
a customers server without any firewall (he refused to pay for one) and no updates for months (guess why ) got hacked and a rootkit was installed, probably because of an exploitable ssh version. that rootkit ran some rootshell on a high port.
first i didn't notice anything because ps, netstat and other programs got replaced and so the rootshell listening on that port wasnt shown. took me some time to figure out what was going on.

anyway back on topic:
tell this guy you want to visit him for a more private service than pictures, and then send Joel

[VJ]

Originally posted by thop
while a trojan is not really a hack a reformat is the only way after your computer have been comprised.

a bit OT:
while i dont know how the situation is on windows machines VJ is right about programs on linux machines.

anyway back on topic:
tell this guy you want to visit him for a more private service than pictures, and then send Joel

The hacker could have installed a trojan. As for the situation on Windows, I don't see any reason why a hacker might not replace a dll, or an executable file in order to obtain an effect similar as there is on Linux machines. Some virusses do that to send themselves along with emails etc. (small note: in W2K, you can set the system so that you always have to press ctrl-alt-del to log in; Microsoft claims that this is the only key-combination that can not be captured by other softwares)

Just on a small sidenote: if the hacker has been on her computer, is it not possible that he knows she frequents this forum, and know is also reading up on this thread ?


Jörg

[Jessterw]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Liz, sucks when people have nothing better to do than this kind of immature boasting.

Depending one what kind of hack he performed or, more likely as others have said, what kind of trojan he got onto your machine there is really little else you can do besides reformat and reinstall... sucks.

[Jammrock]

Has anyone gone to http://zteppup.netfirms.com/ ?

" The website you have requested has been disabled."

Now if you reverse it and do puppetz.netfirms.com, you get a different story...

Jammrock

[RichL]

According to the ICQ number given on Puppetz.netfirms.com, it belongs to Mike, a 31 year old professional from Canada, the same place Netfirms is based.

A little Googling later, and I think this guy is a serial loser.

http://www.facethejury.com/profile.asp?user_name=puppetz

http://www.ratemyface.com/profile.cfm?online_name=puppetz

I cant see pics cos my works funwall blocks both sites, but the cached page for one reveals :


Sexuality: Straight Smoker? Yes
Age: 18 Religion: Prefer Not To Say
Physical Description:
I have Brown hair, Blue eyes, and a Athletic figure standing 5' 11'' tall.
Location: , Mississippi
Employment: Independently Wealthy
Education: None of the Above
Marital Status: Dating

And the other has his AOL IM handle on there.

[RichL]

Originally posted by RichL

And the other has his AOL IM handle on there.

Why have I just had a mean but funny idea?

[mutz]

GO FOR IT!!!!

[ZokesPro]

Your like the 4th girl I've heard of that's been hacked. And not only that, the hackers seem to hack the good looking ones.

My girlfriend at the time was hacked a long time ago by some retard and really messed up her system good. But in her case I think the guy was a local resident of the town. Well at least I think it was, cause they had a computer repair guy and I think he had the hots for her.

Then there was these 2 girls from one of my college classes, they were chatting online and the computers there had no protection. The guy was trying to open their cd-rom drive but instead it came up as an error cause there was no drives.

And then there's you.

I find that people who don't know you don't bother you so I think it could very well be someone you know.