Getting busted

[surfdude]

Had been seeing a married woman on the side for a few months...and she got busted by her husband. We tried very hard to be careful, but her spouse broke into her hotmail account and retrieved her emails. And, somehow, he got a nice transcript of all her text messages. From what i've always heard, texts arent really retained by the cellular provider any more than a few days, becuase otherwise the volume of data stored would be immense.

I know that there are programs that you can put onto a computer that will track where someone goes on the internet and record all their keystrokes, passwords, etc. Apparently, there's a small device that reads what's on your simcard in your smartphone, and displays your texts and phonecalls on a computer (but someone would need access to your phone)...but how can someone get into your email acount and retrieve emails that are older than 9 months if they've been erased? Sounds like it would take CSI to accomplish something like that.

Any ideas?

 

[superwoman01]

hi surfdude

Had been seeing a married woman on the side for a few months...and she got busted by her husband. We tried very hard to be careful, but her spouse broke into her hotmail account and retrieved her emails. And, somehow, he got a nice transcript of all her text messages. From what i've always heard, texts arent really retained by the cellular provider any more than a few days, becuase otherwise the volume of data stored would be immense.

I know that there are programs that you can put onto a computer that will track where someone goes on the internet and record all their keystrokes, passwords, etc. Apparently, there's a small device that reads what's on your simcard in your smartphone, and displays your texts and phonecalls on a computer (but someone would need access to your phone)...but how can someone get into your email acount and retrieve emails that are older than 9 months if they've been erased? Sounds like it would take CSI to accomplish something like that.

Any ideas?

Well I am not sure how the texts were retrieved--but I am sure someone here will chime in and give you an idea LOL!

As for the emails, The most common mistake people make when deleting their emails is forgetting to delete their sent email box and also to delete their trash. It is a common mistake and that is one way people can get caught. Since most emails show the previous email at the bottom of the email--you just have to open one email and read all the conversations. When you respond to ones email and you prefer to be discreet--it does not hurt to delete the other email and just send your response. I know that AOL and MSN hold on to all emails for up to a year.

The other way was the keystroke program that you already mentioned. Not sure how you get around that one-there is a thread regarding this on the board. I think it was about detecting key logging software on your computer.

In my opinion one of the best things to do is to change your email address and password periodically. It is very easy to hack into someone’s account-most people use common passwords as their B-day, their address, or a favorite word or dog’s name. You have to make a very strong password that only you would know and remember not to leave a password hint that someone else could figure out

Also be very aware of what you are texting to another person and type your words wisely!

A little off subject...BUT...Another important note would be that when disregarding any PC remember to scratch your hard drive this way no information can be recovered. Some people give their PC’s away or recycle them and seem to think if they wipe the hard drive that all their where abouts & information is gone forever when in reality—most information can be retrieved.

The Best,
Anna Marie
Superwoman01

 

[Gavvy Cravath]

Poor guy. That's got to suck to be him. I hope they don't have kids. That would suck having to pay child support when it was the wife that cheated.

 

[fumpton]

Superwoman is right about the deleted emails. Just because you hit delete doesn't mean they're erased. If you're using a Yahoo account, after you hit delete the "deleted" email is still in the trash folder. Most people don't bother to empty the trash folder. Same thing with the sent folder, no one ever empties that either. Yahoo saves the sent emails in the "sent" folder for a long time, but the trash folder is emptied automatically after a few days, although I think you can set the preference to delete automatically everytime you sign out.

As for hacking into her email account, did she have the password "remembered" function on?

 

[Sidekicks]

True. I'm not going to get into it but you should always make passwords hard for others to hack. Its not fool proof but if you use $, %, ^, @, capital letters, etc, meaningless words, it would be harder to hack into. Happened to me also just like surfdude.

 

[SirF]

There are plenty of tips on this site that should keep most people safe most of the time. I think some people don't take the necessary precautions because they want to be found out. I certainly had this feeling more than once.

 

[BlckmastrNYC]

If you're going to hide something learn how to

Thankfully I don't have to worry about being caught by a SO, but.. folks really need to learn basic tech so they can cover their tracks. After 10 years of telling people how to it still amazes me that people are afraid of learning a few simple things.

Do not store passwords or usernames on your computer. Create one you can commit to memory.

Everything is stored on your computer unless you delete it (emails, cookies, temporary internet files) and chats (unless you specify not to in the options).

Always log off and make sure you log off completely. When you're done go through the entire clean up process.

Patch your computer.. whether Mac or Windows.. but that's for outside threats. For indoor threats (i.e. your SO).. you should never assume he or she is a complete idiot when it comes to computers. Even idiots get lucky.

This stuff is easy once you get used to doing it and takes a few minutes. As for hidden keyloggers, probably the best defense is to not share a computer with your SO and make sure yours is on total lockdown (password protected), and even then.. I would still delete everything as I mention above.

But.. thankfully.. I don't have to worry about that. I can load up with as much porn as I like