I had my credit card information stolen yesterday. HELP!?

Question

A couple of days ago, my spyware software found a trojan horse, and it was quarantined. A day later, I bought some items on a known website early yesterday morning; by the end of the day, i realized that my credit card had been used on several websites, spending $2000. Card is canceled, but i'm scared of using my computer!? What if they still have access to all my information!!??? Bank accounts!!?? Does anyone know something about how people hack and if i'm safe.? What can i do?

Answer 1

Damn, sorry to hear about that.

If you follow the steps below, you shouldn't have any future problems.

1) Completely reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. I would not bother running antispyware programs at this point, just do a reformat to be sure that no malicious programs are taking your details. I would definitely do it if my bank details had been taken.

2) After the reformat, install a software firewall like Comodo. Most software firewalls will be able to block the trojan/keylogger from sending your details to others on the internet. It will also be able to block hackers and suspicious programs from doing damage.

3) Install an antivirus program. If you want a free antivirus, use Avira AntiVir PE Classic. It has the best detection rates of all the free AV products and it is very light on system resources.
If you want to pay for an AV to get better protection, then I would highly recommend Kaspersky or NOD32. Both have excellent protection and they are light on resources.

4) Install antispyware programs. I would recommend Windows Defender for real-time protection and SUPERAntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, A-Squared free and Ewido/AVG Anti-Spyware for manual scans - make sure you run them regulary.

5) Install CCleaner, which will remove all your old temp files, history, cookies, etc. Again, run this program regulary.

6) Install a secure web browser. I recommend Firefox, and if you do use Firefox, install the "Adblock plus" and "Noscipt" addon. With those addons, it is by far the most secure web browser currently available. It will stop all harmscripts from installing. I would also recommend you install McAfee SiteAdvisor addon for Firefox - this will alert you to harmful websites and scams.

7) Change ALL of your passwords, every single one of them. Use more secure passwords with at a very minimum of 8 letters, numbers and symbols. Use Microsoft password checker to see how secure the password is: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

8) Keep all of your passwords safe, do not store them on your PC. Update all those security programs regulary.

Follow those steps, and it should not happen again.

Answer 2

Your first call should be to the bank that secures your card. Tell them what happened and they will work with you to cancel the additional charges. You may have to submit an affidavit to the effect that you did NOT run up these charges, but it's a minor inconvenience on your part to get out from under the charges.
Second, make a police report concerning identity theft with your local cops. If they claim they don't do this sort of thing, INSIST they take your statement. If the FBI, or any other law enforcement agency takes up this case without you filing a report of the incident locally, they will drop the investigation.
Third, using another computer, download a GOOD antivirus program and more than a few GOOD antispyware programs and store them on a flash drive or other removeable media. Do NOT use the infected computer to do this. Install the software in your computer, update everything, and restart it in safe mode with system restore shut off. Scan the crap out of the computer until EVERY scan comes back clean. Don't quarantine anything, delete every infected file. When your scans are clean, reboot your computer and turn system restore back on and make a restore point of your clean system. Delete any restore point prior to this one. You should now be safe. You will have to change all your passwords since they were compromised, change your e-mail address, and change anything that you personally put in the computer that will identify you. Hope this has helped.

Answer 3

It is possible, but very unlikely that the information was stolen from the Trojan horse that your spy ware detector found. If you had that installed and running it probably found it before it did any damage.
It is a very much more likely scenario that your card information was stolen from a restaurant or gas station that you use or by some one you know. My may have also handed a hacker your information by answering a phishing scam or visiting a un-reputable on line merchant.
Are you safe now. no. Monitor everything account you have very closely. check it daily, if not every couple hours for a while. Call all your banks and have them issue you new cards, that's free and just takes some time. get an online free credit report and check everything there. go here (https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp)
this is the free credit report web site that is truly free, make sure that you dont check any boxes about signing up for anything. good luck

Answer 4

Well the Trojan gave them an open window and they could have used it to make a backdoor to come back later.
To be 100% sure i reccomend backup and format and install an Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware before you make a connection to the net.
Also keep your Operating System up to date, many of the vulnerabilities are hotfixed.
About how they hacked, you could have opened a suspicious website or email and got the trojan, all they need then is your IP which is logged when you opened their site and some trojans are modified to send the infected computers IP address to a specific place like to their PC.
There are many other ways that it could have happened, example, keyloggers, exploits etc...
The best defence is Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and Updates.
Good luck
Hope this helps

Answer 5

Easy just do what I do.. Change your credit card number each month. I pick mine up at the store. I usually go with Visa as master-card and American express cause issues. They sell vista cards at kroger and cvs.. in the gift card section. As long as you don't register your card it doesn't matter who gets the number because it changes every month.. and as far as identity theft goes.. well with the number changing every month its just not going to happen.. remember think smarter not harder :) Seen people with identity theft.. From $5.00 to $5 Million with 1 click it can all disappear! Fast to :( This one guy lost it all $700,000 down to 0. Lost the house car's everything.. how did it happen? His $ was digital.. numbers in a computer system.. 1 click and POOF its all gone! Take the microsoft word application type in $20,000 (ok thats a number in a computer application right?) Now press the delete key.. POOF the number is gone right? well with a bank they have a computer program with a number in it.. 1 press of the delete key and your bank balance goes from $50,000 to $0.50 cents! and poof your real Digital cash is now gone! banks don't go buy the cash they have in the bank no no no they go by the NUMBER in the COMPUTER system! so type the words "Hi mom" then delete them.. poof gone.. just like that.

Answer 6

Alert your bank and cancel your credit cards. File a police report even though the person that stole all your info may not live in your area. Good luck to you.

Answer 7

Call all your credit card companies right now to tell them what happened and get the cards canceled and replaced with new cards.

Change all your online passwords at any web sites that you use passwords at.

Scan for viruses every day for awhile. Do you have Webroot SpySweeper? Get it and scan.

Free downloads to get and scan your PC with:
free SuperAntiSpyware at SuperAntiSpyware.com
free AVG Anti-Spyware at http://www.grisoft.com/0
free AVG Anti-Rootkit at http://www.grisoft.com/
free CWShredder at http://www.intermute.com/products/cwshredder.html

If you have Windows XP get the free: http://www.grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm
and: http://www.grc.com/UnPnP/UnPnP.htm

Turn off your Windows XP, or earlier version of Windows, firewall and make sure you have a reliable firewall installed, such as: Zone Alarm, Mcafee, Sygate, etc.

Go to http://www.grc.com/su-fixit.htm and follow instructions to turn off 2 services on your PC

Answer 8

there is nothing you can do about the money now, unfortunatelly. But it is highly recomended for you to clean your computer. find out what kind of trojan it is and try this page for removal software, I usually find what I need here: http://www.2-spyware.com/

Answer 9

how would a yahoo user be a help..... call your bank.. what are you waiting for????

Answer 10

dang, thats bad, you really need help..