Solved Thank you to drinkingbird. I do feel much better. I appreciate you!! Very suspicious and unusual activities seen on laptop and desktop. Solved

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

I have had some strange things take place after the mistake of joining social media. I pretty much think that will some it up. Its like they have taken over. I am new and needing some help. I have done factory resets and new iso image resets. It just seems like it keeps happening. Is there a scan I can run. I have a hp desktop and assus laptop. thanks.. Update! I do think everything is fine and I would like to say thank you and how much I apprciate you helping me so fast. I hope its ok to say member drinkingbird was very attentative to my self caused problem. It turns out I was more or likely being paranoid. Ok I was being paranoid. Better safe than sorry. No more social media for me. I will stick to my microcontrollers. Hmm, wonder if there is any topic on those here. Thanks SNBForums and to drinkingbird.
R.B.M

 

[drinkingbird]

I have had some strange things take place after the mistake of joining social media. I pretty much think that will some it up. Its like they have taken over. I am new and needing some help. I have done factory resets and new iso image resets. It just seems like it keeps happening. Is there a scan I can run. I have a hp desktop and assus laptop. thanks

You need to be more specific as to what is happening. If you've done a wipe of your PC anything you may have gotten on the PC itself should be gone, unless you keep doing whatever you did to get it in the first place. If your online accounts are being hacked or people are getting spam emails from you or something like that then that isn't necessarily your PC itself, you need to start changing passwords on your online accounts in that case.

But what are the "strange" things?

 

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

You need to be more specific as to what is happening. If you've done a wipe of your PC anything you may have gotten on the PC itself should be gone, unless you keep doing whatever you did to get it in the first place. If your online accounts are being hacked or people are getting spam emails from you or something like that then that isn't necessarily your PC itself, you need to start changing passwords on your online accounts in that case.

But what are the "strange" things?

Strange things, On tiktok while i was streaming Lives and interacting it seemed the other spectaors was talking in a strange but pattern based conversation. Well, I caught on and paid attention which took me to follow them. Then a coulpe teachers to say came on my phone at the time and explained the system. they honestly could see me through my screen for I tape my camera unless in use (old school paranoid ). Anyway, after days or maybe a week of constanltly paying attention to these robots or whatever, they feed on controvery and kept trying every topic on me and then I spioke up with a verbal f off nobody picks my beliefs and decides what i like and dislike. I value contructive criticism at the most. That is how I have learned from great people in the past. Anyway, I have done ressets to every item in my house after turning sync off and I feel a like it was pretty thorough job. I also each time I cleaned out held the reset on my incoming Broadcom router with a cable line from Xfinity also know as Comcast. i have one router one incoming cable as it is looks like coaxil but maybe its optical. I do not know, I do live in a little town of 1,300 people and I would say nothing but the less we are not quite up to speed lol. The strange things that have happened are to do with a bad choice to check out social media. Bad choice by the way. Anyway, I am done with social media and the choices was tiktok and facebook wiith messenger. I also, have used the new bing AI-copilot. I am pretty certain it was authentic as to I researched before I used it. Although, I should of came here first. I would be glad to provide information as requested. i am a little gaurded as to these people needless to say tried scare tactics as to ending it for me. Anyway, I am not concerned at all on that. Are they real. I do not know. The attack was real that is online on every device I have. The user names sound out in spanish but not correct spanish to say some pretty hateful stuff. Also, to say to seek the higher power well known, or the other higher power. not sure which is which but one is god, loki, 66 god and godesses, so on to world leaders. Its like they was fishing for information. Idk. I have nothing to hide besides the normal whatevers but I do not care. i do not even keep any of my account information, taxs, property taxs, identity and I mean nothing at all on the internet, phone, network. Although, every business that interacts with me does. Thanks drinkingbird. this is so stressful i am goiing to be a drinking old dog if I can find my wifes mix drink stuff. LOL

 

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

Also, I would like to add this. I am familiar enough to run cmd prompt. I have not really learned shell. If it is code and it needs to be ran in IDE, IDF, or so, I am fluent in Arduino. It does not really help much besides I am good at picking up on patterns and setups and loops. Arduino is its own language that smashes a few languages into its own. I can figure it out too. I am pretty good with electronics and do have some microcontrollers I can scan with. I also, just might have another laptop T-Rex like my other equipment I could start up. The thing is, I only have one network to sign into . I could create a access point with my microcontroller but I would imagine it is as vulnerable as the main network it is attached to. thanks for any help. much appreciated. Oh, I am operating on windows 10 home. Microsoft kept rolling me backwards down from enterprise. I thinks thats not fair but hey, I wasnt going to complain because well its a long story too. Thanks

 

[drinkingbird]

Strange things, On tiktok while i was streaming Lives and interacting it seemed the other spectaors was talking in a strange but pattern based conversation. Well, I caught on and paid attention which took me to follow them. Then a coulpe teachers to say came on my phone at the time and explained the system. they honestly could see me through my screen for I tape my camera unless in use (old school paranoid ). Anyway, after days or maybe a week of constanltly paying attention to these robots or whatever, they feed on controvery and kept trying every topic on me and then I spioke up with a verbal f off nobody picks my beliefs and decides what i like and dislike. I value contructive criticism at the most. That is how I have learned from great people in the past. Anyway, I have done ressets to every item in my house after turning sync off and I feel a like it was pretty thorough job. I also each time I cleaned out held the reset on my incoming Broadcom router with a cable line from Xfinity also know as Comcast. i have one router one incoming cable as it is looks like coaxil but maybe its optical. I do not know, I do live in a little town of 1,300 people and I would say nothing but the less we are not quite up to speed lol. The strange things that have happened are to do with a bad choice to check out social media. Bad choice by the way. Anyway, I am done with social media and the choices was tiktok and facebook wiith messenger. I also, have used the new bing AI-copilot. I am pretty certain it was authentic as to I researched before I used it. Although, I should of came here first. I would be glad to provide information as requested. i am a little gaurded as to these people needless to say tried scare tactics as to ending it for me. Anyway, I am not concerned at all on that. Are they real. I do not know. The attack was real that is online on every device I have. The user names sound out in spanish but not correct spanish to say some pretty hateful stuff. Also, to say to seek the higher power well known, or the other higher power. not sure which is which but one is god, loki, 66 god and godesses, so on to world leaders. Its like they was fishing for information. Idk. I have nothing to hide besides the normal whatevers but I do not care. i do not even keep any of my account information, taxs, property taxs, identity and I mean nothing at all on the internet, phone, network. Although, every business that interacts with me does. Thanks drinkingbird. this is so stressful i am goiing to be a drinking old dog if I can find my wifes mix drink stuff. LOL

Scammers and bots are all over social media. Just because they used some scare tactics on you, as long as you did not provide them information, install software from them, etc, it is just that, scare tactics and attempts to scam you. Does not mean you're infected with anything. They are doing exactly that, fishing for information (called phishing, very common). If you provided any information, you need to go secure anything related to that information, change passwords, put fraud alerts, etc.

They cannot see you through your screen, that is impossible. If your cameras are covered, they can't see you, period.

If you did click malicious links or install apps they told you to install, download and run files, etc, then you need to wipe your phone(s). Resetting the cable modem won't do anything.

When you say "came on your phone" do you mean you gave them remote control of the phone? If so, it needs to be factory reset/wiped and start over.

 

[drinkingbird]

Also, I would like to add this. I am familiar enough to run cmd prompt. I have not really learned shell. If it is code and it needs to be ran in IDE, IDF, or so, I am fluent in Arduino. It does not really help much besides I am good at picking up on patterns and setups and loops. Arduino is its own language that smashes a few languages into its own. I can figure it out too. I am pretty good with electronics and do have some microcontrollers I can scan with. I also, just might have another laptop T-Rex like my other equipment I could start up. The thing is, I only have one network to sign into . I could create a access point with my microcontroller but I would imagine it is as vulnerable as the main network it is attached to. thanks for any help. much appreciated. Oh, I am operating on windows 10 home. Microsoft kept rolling me backwards down from enterprise. I thinks thats not fair but hey, I wasnt going to complain because well its a long story too. Thanks

Unless they gained access to your router, your wifi is fine. Even if they did, they'd then have to exploit a vulnerability in your phone or PC to get into that, and as long as you're up to date on your patches, they likely could not.

If you are concerned they got into your router, you can factory reset it and reconfigure it, make sure to use a good password and if it has the option to manage it from the WAN, disable that. Check to see if there are any firmware updates available for it (if the router is ISP provided, they probably manage the firmware updates and it should hopefully be up to date).

If you know that spare laptop hasn't been used since this all started, you could use that to download a fresh windows 10 image to a thumb drive and wipe your other PCs and use that to reinstall from scratch, which would get rid of anything they may have on them.

But I'm not convinced you actually have anything compromised. Sounds like you may have just been hassled by scammers, again if you did not install anything, click their links, let them take remote control of anything, etc, likely nothing happened. But if you want to be ultra safe and have piece of mind, and don't mind all the work, factory reset your router and reconfigure, factory reset your phones and reconfigure, wipe your PCs and reinstall from a fresh image downloaded directly from MS.

When you are reconfiguring stuff and downloading those images, do it from a PC that you did not use during all of this like that old laptop.

Scare tactics are one of the main ways they get you to do stuff. For example some malicious sites will pop up a window saying you are infected or your windows has been locked, then they ask you to call a number and provide your info, it is a fake number. All you do is close out the window, its just a website made to look like an error message. There are all kinds of things like that out there.

 

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

Scammers and bots are all over social media. Just because they used some scare tactics on you, as long as you did not provide them information, install software from them, etc, it is just that, scare tactics and attempts to scam you. Does not mean you're infected with anything. They are doing exactly that, fishing for information (called phishing, very common). If you provided any information, you need to go secure anything related to that information, change passwords, put fraud alerts, etc.

They cannot see you through your screen, that is impossible. If your cameras are covered, they can't see you, period.

If you did click malicious links or install apps they told you to install, download and run files, etc, then you need to wipe your phone(s). Resetting the cable modem won't do anything.

When you say "came on your phone" do you mean you gave them remote control of the phone? If so, it needs to be factory reset/wiped and start over.

Yes and thanks for the advice. I am very confident I did not click on anything or download any apps. I do remember this though!! I have 2 things to say. First, the date my pc did a debug and it was a huge I mean huge file as far as it had to expand the cache for it in the note pad I opened it in. I do have some notes on it also with the suspicious code per say. Those notes are hand written just because thats how I do things to memorize or learn. First, A good friend I have known and do trust came over and the date he came over and the date of the activity was close enough I am unsure if it was then or not. SO, it probably was. I mentioned to him to do whatever to get Kodi on my desktop because he likes to view the UFC fights and I like to entertain any company because I do not get much to none. Well, he did mention that it was from the UK and he did use kodi. it took a few minutes to bypas defender but it was a clean stream from the UK though. That is very much it but I know he would not do it on purpose. Also, what occured later that week was I purchased his old asus laptop for 30 bucks. Yes a T-Rex but it works great. He did delete all his accounts and such. I did check but not very thoroughly. Anyway, he did mention I could visit his library anytime on teamviewer by just calling him to match up codes or passwords. I told him I did not want to chance screwing up anything. Therefore, maybe the night of the free ufc fight on kodi from the UK he accessed some of his files that migh be protected on his end since he has a very much new pc. Mine, is not set up for all the security stuff because I do not do much besides research and flash my ino and bin files to my microcontrollers. theory is what thats based on. Also, besides my grandson being allowed on our private network thats it know one else has been here. Their are some new folks on the block and I do see a few different networks. Which rises a third scenario. On the Blue tooth network viewing i have found a strange one and it was PB-q64 or something similar it had 64 in the device name and it started with PB- xx64. Anyway, thanks for being so attentative to my situation. I am very much looking forward to turning off my paranoid mind and taking the tape off my cameras. NOT. lol. thanks so much. I am certain they did not get nothing zilch, not even my pride. They can threaten me to no end and I will not react. The violence and crap has to end bit it does begin with not acknowedging it at the beginning. It does need addressed when it occurs in fact. They did plenty of anyway I am not going to say the gum chewing flavored common thing on here. it just premotes ingnorance. There is a time and place for everything and thats not a concern. I did call my bank which is local an in person spoke with the IT and for good keeping made note of the cyber attack and eliminate any access besides with me in person. I know them personally and it is not going to happen. I call it Real Intelligence. not artificial. they know me by person. LOL. small town benefit. trust me there are the downfalls like gossip. I stay home to prevent that. thank you again

 

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

Unless they gained access to your router, your wifi is fine. Even if they did, they'd then have to exploit a vulnerability in your phone or PC to get into that, and as long as you're up to date on your patches, they likely could not.

If you are concerned they got into your router, you can factory reset it and reconfigure it, make sure to use a good password and if it has the option to manage it from the WAN, disable that. Check to see if there are any firmware updates available for it (if the router is ISP provided, they probably manage the firmware updates and it should hopefully be up to date).

If you know that spare laptop hasn't been used since this all started, you could use that to download a fresh windows 10 image to a thumb drive and wipe your other PCs and use that to reinstall from scratch, which would get rid of anything they may have on them.

But I'm not convinced you actually have anything compromised. Sounds like you may have just been hassled by scammers, again if you did not install anything, click their links, let them take remote control of anything, etc, likely nothing happened. But if you want to be ultra safe and have piece of mind, and don't mind all the work, factory reset your router and reconfigure, factory reset your phones and reconfigure, wipe your PCs and reinstall from a fresh image downloaded directly from MS.

When you are reconfiguring stuff and downloading those images, do it from a PC that you did not use during all of this like that old laptop.

Scare tactics are one of the main ways they get you to do stuff. For example some malicious sites will pop up a window saying you are infected or your windows has been locked, then they ask you to call a number and provide your info, it is a fake number. All you do is close out the window, its just a website made to look like an error message. There are all kinds of things like that out there.

That is the truth. I have given my mom the same information and luckily she has only had a couple instances. The one thing you mentioned and I did read your message. The pop ups I never ackowledge, the phone calls.. I have never fell for any of them. Now only one time I touched the internet with my Debit card. Now it has a different number other than my accouns. This incedent occured with a mystery $14.99 charge to amazon. Appx. a month after a 6 dollar order. i got in a darn hurry and did not drive 5 minutes to get a free amazon gift card by using cash or hand writing a check. Anyway, the other situations that come to mind are as follows, bing Co-pilot the new AI. it did come directly from MS. I now question myself on that. Yes it was the GPT. No i did not download it it was a browser. Oh shxxxx. I did download TikTok Live Studios. It has been advetising about the new logon and music add ons with third parties being welcome with a secure certificate of authenticity. Well well, those are easy to get. also, I am familiar with overloading networks locally with packets and they automatically log offline and then setting up a beacon and new network names as for securuty to tell people to upgrade. No enjoyment in causing panic in my little city of similar to mayberry. lol. I havent done it for a 3 years or so. It was a ESP8266 deauther code in development from github from spacehhunn I do believel. Anyway, i will keep on thinking and see what other things you said to spurr any memories. I really do appreciate this. I am glad it might not be anything and I hope to say it is not an I wasted a bunch of my time. I will have to admit to my awesome wife my wrongness and she will be gald. We will laugh our as ssss off too. I do appreciate your time and sorry for the in proper puncuations and grammer. I have a litlle problem with my hands and have trouble typing and have gotten to the point of oh well its just me. Thanks.

 

[Asuslp-Hpdtolddog]

May I have permission to in private send the paragraph you sent to me saying how to deal with the pop ups. I am just going to send it to my 85 year old mother. So she knows how to take care of it aldo add to still call one of us 5 boys to check her pc. lol. thanks again. It will make me look less paranoid too.. I am still going to perform the wipe and re configure method you mentoned. i do not think I reconfigured so I will research that from microsoft unless you know of any reading material on reconfiguration after a possible breach of security. Thanks.

 

[drinkingbird]

May I have permission to in private send the paragraph you sent to me saying how to deal with the pop ups. I am just going to send it to my 85 year old mother. So she knows how to take care of it aldo add to still call one of us 5 boys to check her pc. lol. thanks again. It will make me look less paranoid too.. I am still going to perform the wipe and re configure method you mentoned. i do not think I reconfigured so I will research that from microsoft unless you know of any reading material on reconfiguration after a possible breach of security. Thanks.

Feel free, this forum is public, I don't claim copyright to anything I post