Mac Specs: 2x 2.2 C2D MBP 15", 3x Mac Classic, Mac Mini, iPhone 3G, Clamshell
OS 10.5 - can he hack(crack) into my computer?
Hey guys,
Well long story short I sort of ticked of the wrong guy (it wasn't my fault) and he knows his way around a computer. My question is how easy, if at all possible is if for him to crack into my Macbook Pro running the Apple Firewall, and File Vault? would it be any more confusing to crack into Leopard than to crack into XP or Vista? I have the latest security updates too. He obviously knows my IP address, but i have 2 networks in my house and right now i'm logged on to the second one because it gives me a different IP. Will he be able to back trace the IP to this computer again?
Sorry if this is on the wrong section mods.
Last edited by Aptmunich; 02-24-2008 at 02:40 PM.
Reason: Profanity
Well long story short I sort of ticked of the wrong guy (it wasn't my fault) and he knows his way around a computer. My question is how easy, if at all possible is if for him to crack into my Macbook Pro running the Apple Firewall, and File Vault? would it be any more confusing to crack into Leopard than to crack into XP or Vista? I have the latest security updates too. He obviously knows my IP address, but i have 2 networks in my house and right now i'm logged on to the second one because it gives me a different IP. Will he be able to back trace the IP to this computer again?
Sorry if this is on the wrong section mods.
*****sorry i didn't know the pisssed off was a bad word. ****
Mac Specs: 2x 2.2 C2D MBP 15", 3x Mac Classic, Mac Mini, iPhone 3G, Clamshell
well I fell for a scam on Craigslist. and after I went far enough to even get the money order sent to me. It was one of those Nigerian Scams with the counterfeit money orders and then i send the extra money back to him via Western Union. Well by the time he sent it to me I realized that this was a scam and when the money order got to me I told him that I gave it to the Police and I continued to tell him off. etc.
Well my cousin knows a lot about computers(but only Windows OS) and I asked him to do a reverse IP trace on him, and it turns out that this guy had cracked into Yahoo and sent the email through 10 different servers, including one on Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and a couple in the US. And it came from a dial up pool in Nigeria. So obviously if he could crack into Yahoo he could get into my computer, right?
ibookmobile007 - Thanks that eases my nerves a bit.
Mac Specs: White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
Don't worry about the Nigerian scammers, just cut any losses and sever all links - literally, do not have any further communication with them
Chances are your Nigerian scammer does not know what an IP address is. He hasn't cracked yahoo, it may be that the yahoo mails have just gone through those servers on the way to you. f I trace my own IP it resolves to a town about 30 miles away, so anyone trying to trace me using my IP will be out of luck.
The guy is most likely working out of an internet cafe in lagos, so is not going to have the equipment to track you down. Any threats are just bluff, as long as you have never given out your read postal address totally ignore him.
In future NEVER offer to send any money to anybody you dont know via Western Union - that just screams scam
He doesn't "know" your IP address, he might have the IP address of your router, but unless you have specifically ordered a static address he has nothing. And like louishen said, he is hanging out in Lagos, Nigeria. There is no way he is hacking into your Mac. If you are worried, find your router's IP address: http://whatismyip.com/
Then shut if off tonight. Cold dead off. Tomorrow, restart it, chances are you will get a new address.
Knowing your IP address doesn't do a hacker much good, any more than knowing your street address would help a burglar break into your house. Leaving ports open will definitely make it easier, however, just like leaving a door unlocked into your house.
Mac Specs: White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
Rest easy - you are more secure than most net users.
The Nigerian will soon lose interest if any contact dries up. Their only interest is to make money so (unfortunately) he will move on to the next mark and forget about you.
Good that you spotted the scam and refused to cash the money order - well done on that one.
Mac Specs: MacBook Pro 15" Matte 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
I saw a pretty interesting show on Nigerian Internet Scams.
There are all these businesses over there that are constantly being raided by police. They're just a bunch of little rooms packed with computers with people typing these scams up.
Just install a decent firewall on your mac. The firewall Apple included with Tiger was OK, Leopard is a different story. Download WaterRoof or NoobProof. It's a front end for the ipfw firewall included in *inx operating systems. NoobProof is really easy to install and run - I use it myself.
"A Five Billion US$ (as of 1996, much more now) worldwide Scam which has run since the early 1980's under Successive Governments of Nigeria. It is also referred to as "Advance Fee Fraud", "419 Fraud" (Four-One-Nine) after a formerly relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria, and "The Nigerian Connection" (mostly in Europe). However, it is usually called plain old "419" even by the Nigerians themselves. In brief, 419 is a sub-classification of Advance Fee Fraud crime in which the perpetrators are West Africans, primarily Nigerians, operating globally from Nigeria and elsewhere."
I first saw this scam in the mid-90s, I thought it had kinda dried up by now but last year I overheard someone talking about their check-on-the-way-from-Nigeria in the elevator in the building I lived and kindly informed them of the scam...I guess its still running strong!
