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Saturday, 2 March 2013

Beware of Password Hacking Scams and Fake Tutorials


Beware of Online Scams 
In the era of Internet, emails and social networking have taken a prominent role in almost everyone’s life, especially when it comes to the exchange of information and personal messages. So, hacking the password of an email or social networking account alone can reveal a lot of personal details about the person. Even though hacking is considered illegal, some people are left with no other option. This can be a parent wanting to gain access to the child’s email or someone who need the password of their partner’s social media account.

Well, this post is not about teaching you how to hack! But, it is about making you aware of some of the password hacking scams and fake hacking tutorials that are waiting to exploit those people who are in desperate need of hacking someone’s online password. Here is a list of some of the online scams that you should be aware of and always stay away from:

1. Password Hacking Services:

Many of the scam websites have managed to rank on top of Google for some of the most popular keywords about hacking. As a result, these websites attract a lot of people (who are in need of someone’s password) and promise them to give what they want! As most people do not have any knowledge about hacking, they often believe what is mentioned on these websites is true. Taking this factor as an added advantage, these websites (the so called hacking services) rip off money from the people and never keep up their promise.

Why password hacking services do not work?

The big reason behind why these services never work is that, most of them are owned by those scammers and noob hackers who do not have sound knowledge of how the hacking process actually works. Also, with the level of security adopted by the services like Gmail, Yahoo or Facebook, it is near impossible to to hack their database to obtain the password. Unlike, what is mentioned on most of these websites, it is not possible to use the brute force approach as well. Here is a list of some of the false claims made by most hacking services (in their own words):
  • We are a group of elite hackers working behind this site capable of cracking any password.
  • We have found out a certain vulnerability in the Facebook or Gmail servers using which we crack the password.
  • We use brute force approach to crack the password.
  • After a long time of research and hard work, we have managed to develop a program that can crack any password with just a click of a button.
If you come across a site making claims as mentioned above, it is a clear sign of a scam service. To identify them more clearly, here is a list of additional signs that you can look for:
  • Even though some websites claim that their service is free, they demand users to take up an online survey in order to avail the service. In reality, these websites are created to earn money by forcing people to participate in a survey program.
  • These websites accept payment only through services like Western Union and Money Gram but not via credit card. This is a clear sign of fraud as the money sent through these services cannot be tracked and refund cannot be claimed later.
So, the bottom line is that, if you come across a website that seems too good to be true or show some signs as mentioned above, it is always a better choice to stay away from them.

2. Fake Hacking Tutorials:

This is another type of scam that most teenagers fall victim for. This is because, most teenagers do not have enough money to afford the hacking services and hence go in search of free options and hacking tutorials that can easily get them the password they want. This is where the fake hacking tutorials come into play.
This tutorial is designed cleverly to trick users and make them believe it is true. But, in reality, when someone follows the method prescribed in the tutorial, they lose their own password in attempt to hack someone else’s password. Here is a small example of how this fake tutorial goes:

Here is an easy way to hack any Gmail password. This method was revealed by a professional hacker to me which when tried was successful.
  1. Log in to your Gmail account and compose a new email.
  2. In the subject, type exactly as follows: “password retrieval”.
  3. In the body of the email, type your username followed by your password in the first line.
  4. Leave exactly 3 lines of gap and type in the target username that you want to hack. Then send this email to: passretrieve2013@gmail.com.
When you do this, the Gmail server gets confused and will send the target password to your inbox within the next few hours.

Now, let us carefully look at how the above trick works. This trick is designed intelligently by a noob hacker and is often posted on many forums and low quality websites. Here, the creator of this tutorial tells a lie to the people that there exists a bug in the Gmail system that can be exploited by using the tutorial. However, by following this trick, innocent victims are sending their own password to the hacker’s email address (passretrieve2013@gmail.com) and thus get trapped.
This is another type of scam that seems too good to be true. Unfortunately, most people would follow this trick and end up handing over their login details to an unknown person. If you’ve ever tried this method, it is a wise option to change your password immediately in order to prevent any further damage.
I hope you like this post. Please pass your comments. :)

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