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I have been a member of ICQ since shortly after it began - my ICQ number WAS (note the past tense) 128484. I really don't use ICQ as my primary IM network anymore, but I kept that number (and logged into it through Trillian) for all these years. Well, that changed in July/August.
Around that time I noticed that I couldn't log into my account anymore. I tried every combination of passwords and emails that I have had, and could not get in. I tried contacting ICQ support back in August, and was told that I had to use the "password recovery" system, which prompts you for your email and mails the password to you. I tried various emails I have had in the past, to no avail. I tried to contact them back then, and basically they said "tough luck" and told me I had to re-register to be a member of ICQ. I wrote it off as me simply forgetting what email I used to sign up for ICQ, and moved on.
Well, my good friend Daniel Nashed contacted me yesterday and said that he spoke with someone using my ICQ number - and that he quickly realized it wasn't me. Some Russian hacker asshole has stolen my ICQ identity. I finally had proof that I wasn't going crazy, and that my account had in fact been stolen.
So, I wrote ICQ again yesterday with this new information. Here is the support ticket that I submitted to ICQ:
I reported a few months ago that my ICQ number (128484) had the password changed without my consent. I asked you for help then to recover my password, and you didn't help me.
Now I have PROOF that someone has STOLEN my ICQ number. The person who stole it is in RUSSIA, and has admitted to a friend of mine that they did in fact STEAL my account from me.
I can provide whatever proof you need to confirm that this account is rightfully mine - just tell me what you need. I have been a member of ICQ since it was in early beta (as evidenced by my low number), and I would like to regain my number from the thiefs who stole it.
Please let me know what I can do to help you recover my number. I can also place you in contact with my friend who has talked to the thief who stole my number, and he can even provide the transcript of the conversation.
Please help me. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Regards,
Rocky Oliver
Senior IT Architect
IBM Corporation
rock AT us.ibm.com
I submitted that ticket two days ago, and here is the response I have received from ICQ ("ICQ Supporter: Eddie Smith"):
Hello Rocky Oliver,
We apologize but if you cannot get a new password using the password assistance system, you will not be able to regain access to your account. Note that the ICQ team does not restore passwords.
Thank You,
The ICQ Support Team.
This is basically the same response I received before. I am giving this one more effort - I responded with the following:
OK explain this to me - how am I supposed to use the password recovery services when SOMEONE ELSE HAS STOLEN MY ACCOUNT AND CHANGED ALL THE INFORMATION????? This isn't a case of a forgotten password - this is a case of a STOLEN ACCOUNT. I'm not some kid hacker playing games - I am a 41 year old computer consultant that works for IBM. And I didn't "forget" my password - someone has hijacked my account. So, please explain to me how I am supposed use a system for "password recovery" when someone else has unlawfully taken over my IDENTITY on your system and has changed all the pertinent information used to recover the password?
I eagerly await your response.
Regards,
Rocky Oliver
Senior IT Architect
IBM Corporation
rock AT us.ibm.com
Well, I don't expect to get a satisfactory response. I searched the various help forums for ICQ and found that this isn't an isolated incident - in fact it seems to be rampant.
I've had enough. I kept ICQ in spite of the huge amount of spam, unsolicited contacts, etc. I kept ICQ because I was proud that I had the low number, and occasionally I got contacted by a friend - like Daniel. However, this is enough. I won't be signing up for ICQ again, and I would strongly recommend that others avoid it. There are other IM networks out there that don't seem to have the problems ICQ has, and most people I know use the other ones anyway.
So if you are one of the few who still uses ICQ and you have me on your contact list, remove it - 128484 is not me anymore. And I caution you to be careful on ICQ from now on.
NOTE: I have gotten the chat transcript between my friend Daniel and the Russian asshole hacker. You can read it by clicking "read more" below...
UPDATE:Here is the chat transcript between my friend Daniel and the Russian hacker asshole that stole my account:
[17:59] DaddyDawg: I'm russian =)
[17:59] nsh: closed the window and now it works
[17:59] nsh: hey you know [**name removed **rock]?
[17:59] DaddyDawg: no
[17:59] nsh: he works for the [**removed **rock] in Germany
[18:00] DaddyDawg: no, i dont know him(her)
[18:00] nsh: the mentioned that you and [**removed **rock] will work with him on something... [**edited **rock]
[18:00] nsh: you will know soon I guess
[18:00] nsh: he is a nice guy
[18:01] nsh: not sure what this is exactly about... [**edited **rock]
[18:01] nsh: I thought you might know im already. funny than I might be faster than internal ibm communication or something went wrong LOL
[18:01] nsh:
[18:02] nsh: glück
[18:02] nsh: oops wrong window...
[18:02] DaddyDawg: I'm russian, and bad know american
[18:02] nsh: last word made it into the wrong window
[18:02] nsh: russian?
[18:02] DaddyDawg: yes
[18:03] nsh: since when?
[18:03] DaddyDawg: What?
[18:03] nsh: maybe I am talking to the wrong person
[18:03] nsh: what is your real name?
[18:04] DaddyDawg: m4rrow?
[18:04] nsh: u are confusing me
[18:04] DaddyDawg: )
[18:04] DaddyDawg: I'm m4rrow =)
[18:04] DaddyDawg: marrow
[18:04] DaddyDawg: I'm icq-hacker)
[18:05] DaddyDawg: so..
[18:05] DaddyDawg: *HELP*
[18:06] DaddyDawg: ????
[18:06] DaddyDawg: ignor?
[18:07] nsh: so you are not my friend rocky?
[18:07] DaddyDawg: no
[18:07] nsh: very odd. how come you have this icq account?
[18:07] nsh: it was his for a long time
[18:07] DaddyDawg: Icq-brute
[18:07] nsh: how long do you have this acount?
[18:07] DaddyDawg: two days =)
[18:08] DaddyDawg: I'm very sorry, but this number my =)
[18:08] DaddyDawg: now)
[18:08] nsh: why didn't you get your own number?
[18:09] nsh: I will send this chat to the orignal owner of the ICQ account
[18:09] DaddyDawg: no
[18:09] DaddyDawg: i'm very sorry
[18:10] DaddyDawg: this number very cool =)
[18:10] DaddyDawg: *THUMBS UP*
[18:11] nsh: I know. my friend has this number for a very long time
[18:11] nsh: I will send him this chat now...
[18:11] nsh: bye
[18:11] DaddyDawg: stop!
[18:11] nsh: why?
[18:11] DaddyDawg: one second
[18:13] DaddyDawg: give me his number! =)
[18:13] nsh: what number?
[18:13] DaddyDawg: number of yor friend
[18:14] DaddyDawg: *your
[18:14] nsh: what number?
[18:14] DaddyDawg: icq
[18:14] nsh: what number are you using right now
[18:14] nsh: I will not tell you the number.
[18:14] DaddyDawg: yes
[18:14] nsh: but I could confirm the number is the same
[18:15] DaddyDawg: what?
[18:15] nsh: are you stupid?
[18:15] nsh: you are wasting my time
[18:15] nsh: I will send a mail to my friend now
[18:15] nsh: bye
[18:15] DaddyDawg: fuck you man
[18:15] nsh: same to you
[18:15] nsh: bye
[18:16] DaddyDawg: i flood you, goodbye
[18:16] DaddyDawg: ]:->
[18:16] DaddyDawg: @=
Daniel contacted ICQ on my behalf as well - and got a canned response telling him how to use the password recovery system.
Once again I cannot stress to you how insecure ICQ seems to be, and how unhelpful and worthless ICQ support is to help resolve issues like this. ICQ is NOT secure, and the people running it do not seem to care - and what's worse they will not help you, the honest customer, fix your identity theft issues.
So, stay away from ICQ. You have been warned.
Rock
**The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
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Comments
Posted by m4rrow At 01:55:22 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
Well, regarding the ICQ problem... Having all those nice numbers, you have to remember that they cost money now, and that you have to do some basic things to protect them. Like, for example, use long, har-to-guess, hard-to-brute passwords. Don't make smth like QWERTY or QAZWSXEDC your password - it's obvious. And it takes something like 5 minutes to brute long passwords of numbers (even if there are 10 characters).
Hope it helps.
Posted by Alcher Black At 02:24:03 PM On 12/20/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by sammee At 07:31:31 AM On 07/02/2006 | - Website - |
-ahem- Case in point: http://sale.asechka.ru/
Somewhere on there is my UIN. GRRR! Can anyone read whatever language that is?
I wonder if ICQ would act on that.. interesting.
Posted by Not Insane.. again. At 07:22:35 AM On 12/09/2005 | - Website - |
LoooooooooooooooLL
anonymous.ru ;)
Posted by Lat1n0S At 02:12:09 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by russian hacker At 04:51:37 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Dante At 11:11:52 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
Ok so I log onto my account that wasnt too hard but then all my name and information was you guessed it russian, however my hobbies ect were all still there and the same I guess this is easy to do ? I have a very low ICQ number too hummmmm.//// kinda freaky
Posted by M At 07:47:37 PM On 03/20/2006 | - Website - |
What I cannot understand how two people can be using the same number at the same time. I have actually logged in but then I got the message when I did a random search. At that point I got disconnected. It' s weird but it is even more insecure than I thought. I strongly believe that one could log in to a particular number with different passwords. Any ideas on this scenario?
Posted by Francis At 06:59:54 PM On 10/31/2006 | - Website - |
any solutions?
they are sending virus/worms to my friends on contact list
Posted by Firefly At 09:47:39 PM On 12/23/2005 | - Website - |
Some mildly interesting reading:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:b8Cw3XkVuToJ:www.hnc3k.com/icqsecurity.htm+remove+icq+hacked+icq+account&hl=en
Posted by Anna At 02:55:45 AM On 01/02/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Beth/Tananda At 12:32:25 PM On 02/12/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Chris At 02:41:53 PM On 12/03/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Not Insane again At 07:16:15 AM On 12/09/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by sickoftryingtogetmypassword At 02:05:58 AM On 01/16/2007 | - Website - |
You are mega LoooooooooL
Posted by ..o.o At 06:53:30 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
The same thing that has happened to Rock(?) has just happened to me. And I'm getting the same generic, lame responses from ICQ as well. My number is/was 618222.. not as low (hehe!) as Rocky's, but I still thought it was impressive.
I'm actually really pissed off about it considering I have years worth of contacts on that list.. but I think I'll just probe around a bit and see if the person with my number starts to chat with my new number. Stupid ICQ! Grr!!
Thank you Rocky!! At least I know I haven't lost all my marbles since no passwords/recovery attempts have been successful.. I mean.. I know my memory is bad, but c'mon!
Thanks for sharing the story, and I hope you got your UIN back!
--Kalana.
Posted by Not Insane At 07:14:58 AM On 12/09/2005 | - Website - |
I'll pay good money to anyone who can get it back for me.
Contact me: merlisyd@gmail.com
Posted by Andrew At 09:06:23 AM On 07/09/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Roberto Boccadoro At 01:18:13 PM On 11/30/2005 | - Website - |
I do find it amusing that the sheer vastness of the Internet qualifies a number like 128484 as "low".
Posted by Chris Linfoot At 12:03:41 PM On 11/30/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by REBELWOLF At 12:15:53 AM On 04/26/2006 | - Website - |
my # just got hacked too, # 12880
any solutions?
they are sending virus/worms to my friends on contact list
Posted by Firefly At 09:45:07 PM On 12/23/2005 | - Website - |
Chances are good they did a range of ICQ numbers, and yours was in that range.
I still log in to ICQ, but no one I know uses it anymore....
Posted by The Lion King (aka Ray Bilyk) At 10:58:45 AM On 12/02/2005 | - Website - |
[18:07] nsh: it was his for a long time
[18:07] DaddyDawg: Icq-brute
Have someone tried the same soft as DaddyDawg did to get his # back? DaddyDawg/ma4rrow seems to be kind of wow-i-am-a-big-hacker (aka asshole from russia). Script kiddies are just ...you know... Loool. Get your # back, maybe he will steal some other # for him :)
Posted by No At 07:06:29 AM On 12/31/2006 | - Website - |
I actually though ICQ were merging with someone else, Yahoo wasn't it? Did that ever happen?
Posted by Ben Rose At 12:03:41 PM On 11/30/2005 | - Website - |
Posted by Hmm,............ At 08:15:43 AM On 01/31/2007 | - Website - |
The cracker had a very long list of contacts in it, well and truly at home.... Can't begin to describe how satisfying it is to mess them up when they least expect it!
If it weren't for the malicious side, it's nearly a laughable battle of witts. Rock you have the email addy logged, make contact if you want. Couple of tips you might try.
Posted by Anna At 03:49:44 PM On 01/01/2006 | - Website - |
Basically, ICQ is now a free-for-all, lawless network run by script kiddies and hacker-wannabes.
Incidentally, you said you have a lot of contacts in ICQ - I STRONGLY encourage you to contact each one of them (hopefully you have a list somewhere) and let them know that your ICQ number has been compromised, and that if they are contacted by someone claiming to be "you" on that number that it is NOT you. The reason I suggest this is that there have been multiple reports of people losing their ICQ account to a hacker, then the hacker contacts people on the contact list, sends them a file, and encourages them to run it. They do, because after all it is "you", and it installs a trojan/backdoor on their box, compromising their system.
Make sure you notify everyone you know that a) you are no longer on ICQ and anyone who contacts you from there is NOT you; and b) that you strongly recommend they get off of ICQ as well.
Good luck, and sorry you are a victim.
Rock
Posted by Rock At 11:10:30 AM On 12/09/2005 | - Website - |
:(
Posted by drizzle At 09:14:08 AM On 02/01/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by m4rrow At 02:08:44 PM On 12/04/2005 | - Website - |
Rock
Posted by Rock At 11:44:39 AM On 12/02/2005 | - Website - |
Anyone know hebrew?
Take a look here { Link }
Posted by Larsa At 09:20:08 AM On 01/12/2007 | - Website - |
Posted by gg At 02:23:09 PM On 09/08/2006 | - Website - |