[NFBCS] Hackers, Digital Goods Protection?

Mon Aug 10 16:18:48 UTC 2020

Hello Allen and everyone,

	2FA was enabled on the Amazon Account. I'll need to see if aliases
can be blocked in the Spectrum mail account. They got access to our Amazon
and possibly our Microsoft accounts with an e-mail alias. 2FA is far better
to protect Internet resources than are captchas provided 2FA works right. I
used it yesterday to reset a password on another account. It worked like a
piece of cake. Some how the hackers blocked the messages containing the 2FA
one-time codes from reaching me so I was unable to fix our primary Amazon
Account.

As for the digital goods should we decide to buy albums in Amazon Music and
the system allows MP3 files to be downloaded to ones hard drive this will
give us a way to protect digital audio content should this happen again.
We'll keep everyone posted on our progress. All the best and stay safe.

Peter Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Alan Martinez via NFBCS
Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2020 8:57 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Alan Martinez <alan.k.martinez.02 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Hackers, Digital Goods Protection?

Sounds like you need to recover and reset you Spectrum email account and
strengthen the security or password.  If possible enable 2 factor
authentication (2FA) then try to recover the Amazon account.

Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef> ________________________________
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Peter via NFBCS
<nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 9, 2020 6:48:34 PM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Peter <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
Subject: [NFBCS] Hackers, Digital Goods Protection?

Good evening everyone,

        For going on two weeks we've been having to deal with unauthorized
access to our Amazon, Microsoft, and Spectrum Accounts. The culprit appears
to be someone in Russia. They gained access with a Russian alias. They
highjacked our Amazon Account so we can't get into it. Amazon is not being
the most helpful where it comes to helping us recover that account's
password. When we chose "Forgot Password" first we needed to bust a captcha.
Next we're presented with another  screen that allows you to create a new
password. When the password is reset you're presented with a page to enter
an authentication code in the edit field to enter a one-time code, (OTC)
that you receive via E-Mail. The jirks that highjacked our Amazon Account
also gained access to my Spectrum E-Mail account and created filters to stop
the OTC code messages from reaching me. Since otc's are only valid for a few
minutes it wouldn't be a problem for someone at Amazon to simply give us one
over the phone to get around these fun and tgames. I was told that this was
a security issue and they're not authorized to give out otcs via phone.
After several heated discussions with Amazon Staff we called on a local
computer service to help us resolve things. We worked on this issue for
several hours last Tuesday and Friday without success and a ballooning
billfrom this company though the owner allowed us to set up a payment plan.

        So we could order groceries online we created a "Reserve" Amazon
account which so far hasn't been mucked with. We're using a different E-Mail
address for this account as we believe Spectrum may have had mail accounts
hacked and mine was one of them. They would do well to patch things up if
they still want our business.

        Since the card for the compromised account has been voided to
prevent any authorized charges we would simply make the new Amazon Account
our "Primary  Account" and create another account to serve as a reserve and
just let the old one be deleted.

        Over the past three years we bought digital versions of audio and
video material about $2000.00 to be exact. Should we make the reserve
account our primary account we could lose all of those perchases. We're big
users of Prime Music, Prime Video, and Audible. We asked Amazon if it's
possible to export files of those selections and upload them to our new
Amazon Account so they won't be lost. They said there's no way they could do
that. Another solution would be for them to compensate us with an equal
number of credits so we can buy them through the new account to replace
them. Is anyone aware of insurance policies that cover perchases of digital
material in the event that the accounts through which they were bought are
compromised and the selections are irrecoverable? I'll be checkint this out
for myself.

        If Amazon wowes weren't enough someone also hacked our Microsoft
Account. Since we don't have lots of perchases made through Microsoft we
created a new account only to have it deleted last weekend. Last Friday we
created yet another Microsoft Account. Several hours after it was created
the account was deleted. I'm sure Jaden will be on the phone with Microsoft
tomorrow. Here's hoping we can get this and the Amazon issues resolved this
week. Amazon assured us that our perchesses were safe but the problem is
being able to reset the password so we can use this account once more. Any
suggestions will be very much appreciated. All the best and stay safe.

Peter Donahue

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