Alright, this is the hard part.
Hackers
Hackers are anyone who tries to gain access to your account without permission. Most of the time, Hackers start out as scammers who've tricked people's passwords out of them and thus gain illegal access to their account. Sometimes, though, hackers use keyloggers and cookie grabbers to really wreak havoc.
Phishing: Phishing happens when a 3rd party site downloads Cookie Grabbers onto your hard drive. Cookie Grabbers steal passwords and other sensitive information out of your computer's cookie and cache storage. The most common method of snagging people on Gaia has been with bogus links. The best protection against phishing is to not click the link. Here, I'll give you an example.
Here's a link --> Phishing Example
Now, BEFORE you click on this link, just hover over it with your mouse. In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen your browser will display the true link. Make sure that it leads where it says it leads.
And now that you're sure this is a safe link, go ahead and click it. Did you see how that person tried to scam people? She made sure that the text link in her post said Gaiaonline.com, but if you look at the true link, it says Gaiacnline.com. Yes, that's right. GaiaCnline.com with a "C". Sneaky, isn't it?
Bottom Line: NEVER click on links that redirect to GAIACnline.com or RIPWAY.com. They are 3rd party phishing sites. Report ALL posts containing these links or anything that looks weird, and never quote posts with them in it. REPORT ANY POSTS/PMs WITH PHISHING LINKS
Password Botting: This should be easier to protect yourself against. Basically, some douche hacker writes a botting program that tries thousands of different character combinations in order to guess your password and gain access to your account. The safest and surest way to protect yourself is to have some crazy-a** password. Your password should be at least 6 characters long, the longer the better. It should include BOTH capital and lowercase letters as well as numbers and special characters (such as @#$%^&*). Try to create a password that is not a dictionary word. Also, change your password every month or so.
Bottom Line: tunafish --> NOT a good password
*JabRoni966* --> A pretty good password
IF YOU'VE BEEN LOCKED OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNT BECAUSE OF TOO MANY FAILED LOGIN ATTEMPTS EMAIL GAIA SUPPORT.
Scammers
By far, these are the most persistent bastards here on Gaia. They will send you scam PM after scam PM and expect you fall for their crap.
NEVER, EVER GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE NO MATTER WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE.
Scam PMs: This is the most common scam you're going to find. They usually look something like this. They usually make it all pretty by putting Gaia graphics in there and sometimes they stick the Admin avatar in there, but don't be fooled. Report any PMs you recieve.
 Nina Boof · Tue Oct 02, 2007 @ 12:54am · 0 Comments |
