Stolen Neopets

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Tigermouse
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 11:14 pm
Gender: Female

Stolen Neopets

Post by Tigermouse »

I am new here. I am really afraid about what has happened to a friend. When she tried to log in, it was not possible. 2 days later she sent a ticket to TNT, her account got first frozen and then deleted.
Her UC pet (which she had created and painted herself and named after the plushie of her little daughter) was transferred to another account and is since then on an account round trip.
She had good passwords and changed them regularly. She had a pin on her pets and on everything of worth. She doesn't save her passwords on the computer. She lives alone now and no one else has access to her computer.
About 3 weeks earlier people she didn't know offered her cheap items. She did not answer but deleted the neomails and changed her password again.
How is it possible someone hacked into her account?
Why is her account not just frozen but deleted?
It is a nightmare.
thelonetiel
Posts: 1067
Joined: 07 Jan 2006 08:56 pm
Gender: Female
Human Avatar: 15268
Location: Nuevo Mexico, Estados Unidos

Re: Stolen Neopets

Post by thelonetiel »

Did she use a Hotmail or other free email service? Sometimes the email accounts get purged and then they are remade by a hacker.

She also might've been CGed, either visiting a user lookup or shop with malicious coding, or something offsite. If she's a member of Neopets fansites, some of them aren't secure and their password databases have been compromised.

There are also reports of password lists of accounts on the internet.

And finally, it tends to be pretty rare, but there are times when Neopets itself has been hacked or compromised and accounts accessed that way.

I'm not sure about the "deleted" account - When you use the URL to the lookup, what does it say? What message do you get when you try to log in? (anyone can attempt a login and get a message, even without knowing the password)

I'm so sorry to hear about your friends pet. If it was a high end UC, a UC Plushie or other rare pet, it might be the reason she was targeted. UC pets can sell for pretty large amounts of money on the black market off Neopets, so it isn't about making NP, it is about making real dollars and cents.

She should submit a very thorough ticket. If she can provide enough information, TNT has been pretty good about giving accounts back and getting the pets too. Granted, it might take months for it to be sorted out, but she should have patience.

Best of luck to you and your friend, that's very scary and I live in fear of the day I find my account ruined like that.
Tigermouse
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 11:14 pm
Gender: Female

Re: Stolen Neopets

Post by Tigermouse »

As far as I know she has a google-account.
When they hack into an e-mail-account they have the password and the pin.
She thinks it was maybe a programma where the hacker can 'read' what you typei at the moment you are logging in.
In the weeks before she was hacked she could not buy in the shops of Neopia Central..

I don't know whether it is possible to notice when you are in the shop of a CG. Everyone buys in shops. When she thought something is weird she changed her password.

I cannot imagine our passwords are on a list. That should be a list of a million accounts.

I saw an UC pets like her one for 65 USD on a site where they sell pets, accounts, neopoints a.s.o. I think there are still more expensive UC pets, also battledome pets by the way.
I think her UC pet was the reasons why her account was attacked.

Good news about her deleted account. When I enter the name in 'search' it says 'nothing containing xxx was found' but when I enter the URL of her lookup it says 'this account has been disabled' and not 'nobody by this name exists in Neopia'.
That means somehow she is still in the system.
Tigermouse
Posts: 3
Joined: 16 Oct 2011 11:14 pm
Gender: Female

Re: Stolen Neopets

Post by Tigermouse »

We went it through again. I know now what you meant with 'password lists'. There are lists of passwords for hotmail-, yahoo- and google-accounts. Hacckers have set it on internet.
I don't think it was her google-account. She has no pets in the neolodge. Hackers could not know which account and which pets are of her.

We went everything through and think it were CG despite all caution.
She got several mails from a girl who wanted to sell her expensive items for a cheap price. She looked on the lookup, shop and gallery of that girl. There was nothing of worth. Therefore she ignored the mails and changed her password.
She didn't think (and know) that she has to delete all the cookies, too.
It seems that's neccessary. I wonder how a CG can enter an account when they have 'grabbed' a cookie with the wrong password.

After almost 3 weeks she has finally got a ticket number. TNT has opened her case. They have not yet worked on it.
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