[Mark@Home]

Regularly Check Your Accounts To See If An Intruder Has Locked You Out​

Yesterday, 20th June 2024, someone attempted to access my MyGov account 32 times, starting around 2 a.m. They persisted even waiting twice for one hour while a temporary lock was placed on my account because they entered the wrong password. They gave up around 7am.

They failed to gain entry so many times that when I read my e-mails yesterday morning, one from MyGov said I had entered incorrect login details too many times, and as a result, my account had been locked. There were no links in the e-mail and the address was correct. I know when I last used my myGov account. It wasn't yesterday so something was out of kilter.

I went to the myGov site and couldn't get in. A box informed me that my account was locked as a result of too many failed attempts to gain access. The e-mail at least was genuine.

My myGov account history showed me every time entry to my myGov account has been attempted. This only goes back to I think the last fifty events.

I have set a new password and my account is unlocked.

I am grateful for two-factor authentication.

Like it or not, computers and the internet are still in their early years and humans have done little to master either. Bling-centric humans tend to blow pink sparkly rainbow dust in the excitement when new technology emerges. Unfortunately people then blow all their common sense, money, time and effort into perceived get-rich-quick schemes, ignoring the boring stuff, like security. How many children have to be mangled on a road before a crossing is installed? There could well be a Council formula for this!

Criminals, on the other hand, invest a lot of everything into pulling computers apart looking for the weak points to exploit. The efforts to get into my myGov account could not possibly be because I am a billionaire worth exploiting. Thanks to data breaches, my details are on the Dark Web. Yours too, probably. Over time, criminals sift through the lists of stolen data looking for passwords. The criminals don't know if they are still in use or not but it is an avenue worth exploring. Ah, Mark@Home has a password in our list, let's try some websites to see if he has an account. Over time, if initially unsuccessful, criminals can run computer routines to try billions of combinations to get at a valid password. If the criminal is a foreign country, just think of the intelligence value they would gain if they could hack into a government website. Like myGov.

Regularly look into your bank account(s) to look for any suspicious activity. NO MATTER HOW SMALL! A criminal might relieve you of a small amount and wait a week before returning. If you have changed your password, he'll look elsewhere. If you have not changed your password, he will think you do not check your account very often and steal some more. Knowing that you don't bother checking your bank account, he might try other accounts of yours.

Regularly check other websites that are important to you, like shopping, e-mail, etc. If you are locked out, one reason could be that an intruder has locked you out. Use the website's Contact Us to get the matter resolved quickly before you lose out.

Regularly change your passwords. Yeah, yeah, yeahhhhhhhhh it's boooooorrrrrrrring! It all depends on how you view someone else spending all your savings! Look at it THIS way: If you can't be 4r$ed to do your bit, criminals will continue to take and continue to put everyone else, me included, in their firing line. DO YOUR DUTY!

NEVER use links in SMS or e-mails. Instead, go to the company's website and tell them about the message you have received.

For websites important to you - like bank account, e-mail, change your passwords regularly.

Immediately you read in the news of a data breach, change ALL your passwords, even if you have never used the online arm of the business that has been lax and negligent enough to care more about short-term profit than the security of its users' data.

Negligent companies can get their lo$$e$ back by charging you and me more. We can't. So we need to be ahead of the game.

 

[mabbitt10]

I also received a myGov message this week. My account had been deregistered and I had to sign in through the myGov account. MyGov only alert you that there is a message waiting in your account- they never put any content in the message such as you have a refund due. Stay safe and NEVER click on a link in a message - go to your account and check it that way

 

[Suzanne rose]

Never reply to any links, go straight to the original site.

I had an email from the commonwealth Bank saying they from time to time need to update information.
I went straight to my combank and yes there was a message in there to update my address ect .
No matter who it is I never click on any links in my emails or messages

 

[Penny4]

I reckon I must receive those myGov emails weekly. The glaring error from them is their shady email addresses.

 

[Jo Piper3]

Thank you.

 

[Annemarie]

Some very sound advice

 

[anouch]

I have also been getting this email for a while,,I had a message in my Gov file to change my pw as these emails were going around,,,,,same with Amazon which I haven't used in years,,,they put a lock on the acc until I go in and change it if I want access the acc,,,I don't want to so it can stay locked

 

[Parrot]

The MyGov E -M & others I received informing me about some money I was due etc. was forwarded to the ACCC to whom I send all my E - M with glaring errors..in order for them to alert the Party concerned so that they can take the necessary action .

 

[Mark@Home]

I reckon I must receive those myGov emails weekly. The glaring error from them is their shady email addresses.

Mine wasn't a dodgy e-mail. It WAS from myGov and it was informing me I HAD been locked out of my myGov account. Other than read the e-mail, I had no further interaction with it. When I tried to open my myGov account, it was, as the e-mail had told me, locked due to too many failed attempts by someone to get in. Someone, therefore, with criminal intent.

 

[Penny4]

Mine wasn't a dodgy e-mail. It WAS from myGov and it was informing me I HAD been locked out of my myGov account. Other than read the e-mail, I had no further interaction with it. When I tried to open my myGov account, it was, as the e-mail had told me, locked due to too many failed attempts by someone to get in. Someone, therefore, with criminal intent.

Yes, criminal intent for sure and you were so unlucky that the loser selected you.
I was just stating that I get myGov emails that have weird email addresses that are obviously a sham.

 

[Mark@Home]

Yes, criminal intent for sure and you were so unlucky that the loser selected you.
I was just stating that I get myGov emails that have weird email addresses that are obviously a sham.

Hopefully, more and more people are being made wise to phishing tactics of e-mails and SMSs. This of course forces criminals to up the ante by coming up with ever more clever efforts. It must work, too.

The more we share our experiences on platforms like this, as well as with our banks, retailers, ScamWatch, myGov, etc., etc., the faster organisations and governments can act to minimise any damage and possibly trace the perpetrators.

There was an ABC News article only a few weeks ago that gave an interesting insight into some of the criminal gangs involved in cyber crime. Several people were arrested from a property that contained rows of sim boxes. These are devices that can hold dozens of sim cards. While you and I can block individual telephone numbers, the exercise becomes tedious and pointless when hundreds of different telephone numbers are bombarding us. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_box

This also gives a clue as to the possible returns these people get because the investment in equipment isn't exactly pocket money!!!

 

[Penny4]

Hopefully, more and more people are being made wise to phishing tactics of e-mails and SMSs. This of course forces criminals to up the ante by coming up with ever more clever efforts. It must work, too.

The more we share our experiences on platforms like this, as well as with our banks, retailers, ScamWatch, myGov, etc., etc., the faster organisations and governments can act to minimise any damage and possibly trace the perpetrators.

There was an ABC News article only a few weeks ago that gave an interesting insight into some of the criminal gangs involved in cyber crime. Several people were arrested from a property that contained rows of sim boxes. These are devices that can hold dozens of sim cards. While you and I can block individual telephone numbers, the exercise becomes tedious and pointless when hundreds of different telephone numbers are bombarding us. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_box

This also gives a clue as to the possible returns these people get because the investment in equipment isn't exactly pocket money!!!

Yes, I totally agree.