My heart goes out for you, Dr. Minn.
As a matter of fact, this morning I received e-mail from you
asking for money because you're lost somewhere in Irland.
I suspected something like this happened to you so I didn't reply.

The best password we Koreans can have is English words
corresponding to Korean words or names.
You can do this if you have the combination key boards.
This was a suggestion given to me by my nephew who majored in computer
and works as a computer programmer.

Thanks for your advice, Dr. Lee.

I heard some virus (?) can detect my typing sequences via interent and divert it to the address of the  thief.

I am becoming very paranoid and even thinking about disconnecting internet connection to a separate computer and using two memory sticks for storage. e.g. $ related.
These days, even some thumb drives are password protected.

One of my friend lost his lap computer in his apartment (brocken in) where he stored all financial information. He must have spent +++ time to repair the damages. 

Oops, I thought it was you, Minn sun-bae-nim,
sending me E-mail from Scotland and I answered back
to let them contact with me via my cell to take care of
your problem you're in.

I guess the thief used your stored I.Ds.
Thank God, I did't give out my American Express card number.

What a world we're living, sun-bae-nim!

Whatever, I hope you're all right. See you soon. JJ

It happened to me and to many other people we know.
One of the thing we can do is keep the address list in your E-Mail "empty".
Whenever you get an E-Mail from a new person, your E-Mail asks you to save the address.
Do not save it, but instead keep the address in a text file (or similar) and keep it in your computer.
Then the chances of these to happen become much less.

In my case, it happened mostly through my Yahoo account,
so I don't keep any E-Mail addresses there.
I have not had such trouble in my MSN and Gmail account so far,
but I do not save any addresses there either.

When we get such an E-Mail, we need to use our suspicion and common sense.
If Dr. Minn was in real trouble and needed help, he could have called one of his family members,
and, very unlikely, me by an E-Mail.

If it seems to be real (such things can happen to us anytime),
make sure to confirm it by calling his family or friends before sending any money.

It happed early this morning until I realized what was happening.

1.
One of the victim became suspicious and asked "kyungtak Minn" some of the details via e-mail.
The thief was intercepting my e-mail and claimed he went to "McGill university, etc"  knowing everything about  me having read my CV (which I sent somewhere as an mail attachment). She was completely fooled and was ready to sent $ via Western Union as
 instructed when she called me, as she still could not trust the e-mail.

There are all kinds of cyber crimes.

2.
Once I noted someone was deducting" memebership" fee from my credit card for nearly for a year, a small amount.
I caught it one day.  I later noted the criminals were arrested and indited.

I noted somehow  an internet photo printing shop became a leak spot of my credit card information and they "claimed I became a member" as I clicked something on the screen.
So-called "subsediary companies" buy this information from financial informations too.

3.
 Internet shopping becomes very dangerous too.

Once I bought a Korean letter sticker from a store and I gave the credit card number verbally. Later I noted someone was subscribing Korean TV program using my credit card!

4.

Immediate internet crime report site.

 ic3  is the site for your report (FBI is the operator) .   
  
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

 

I deleted another E-mail from you without reading, Minn sun-bae-nim.

민선생!

빨리 수습하신것 같아 다행입니다.
이런일들은 다반사여서 조심 또 조심들 해야 될것같습니다.  규정

저도 이런 일이 몇 번 있었습니다.
1. 우선.. 이멜을 여러곳으로 한꺼번에 보낼때는 cc로 하지말고 bcc 로 하세요. ('b' stands for 'blind')
2. 여행사나..등등에 크레딧카드를 보낼때는 한 이멜에 16 digit을 다 쓰지 말고 두번에 나누어서 보네세요.
예) 처음 8자, 그리고 나중 8자
3. 아는분의 이름으로 이런 구차한 이멜이 올경우는 그 분한테 전화로 일단 연락-확인이 필요합니다.
4. 이런 괴한을 잡을려고 고심하지 마십시오. 안~ 잡힙니다.
5. 그리고... 절대로 Western Union 등으로 송금은 금물입니다. 100이면 100 모두 그 돈 어디로 갔는 지 모릅니다.

민박사님이 골치 좀 썩이셨네요. 허나 부지런히 손을 쓰신 것 같아 다행입니다.

** 자, 이제.. 강민숙님의 연재 수필 올립니다. **

황선생, 이선생님 

크레딧카드를 보낼때는 한 이멜에 16 digit을 다 쓰지 말고 두번에 나누어서 보네세요.
예) 처음 8자, 그리고 나중 8자

이것도 이메일 어카운트가 이놈이 패스알아서 모든 저장 이메일 주무럭거리면, 
다알것 아닌가요.
전화로 불러주는 수도있는데, 그것도 직원놈이, 친구에게 빼돌리든지 조폭에 팔아먹으면,.. 

에후 비 아이에 보고하고 이놈 추적중인데
어는 분 둘이 천 불  삼천 불을 부쳐줄테니, 주소를 알려 달라니가,

메일 주소가 바뀌고
어디 어디에 돈 보내라는 통지가 와서 수상해 저한테 전화해서,
그 교신 증거물  수사당국에 계속 보고중.
돈을 이미 보낸 분이 있으가봐걱정.
제 친구 회계사가 비슷한일을 당해서, 한국의 친척이 돈을 보내 피해를 당햇다는군요.

이런 괴한을 잡을려고 고심하지 마십시오. 안~ 잡힙니다.

불안한것은 금년 구라파 여행지 호텔예약하것 모두 알고있으니,
이 놈들이 조폭의 일부라면,
신변의 위험까지 갈수있어 이 수사를 돕지 않을수 없는 상태.

제가 수사관과 같이있다면, 돈을 달아 낙시로 이 놈 잡을수있을것도 같은데,
수사기관이 그렇게 빨리 돌아가는지는 모르겟읍니다.

제가 감옥과 구치소에 일할떼 아이디 도둑놈과 애기자주햇는데,

한 사람은 회사경리과 콤퓨터  쳐들어가서, 직원,
월급 수표를 미리 자기 집에서 푸린트한 젊은 애 얘기듯고, 제가 놀랜적이 있는데
심한 놈은 감옥에 들어와 몇년 살다가지요

이메일에 도난 당할 만한 서류는 메일 서버에 저장말고, 기억스틱에 저장하고,
특히 돈에 관한 서류는더  생각을 해봐야 겟음.
예. 은행 신용카드 몰게지 스테이트같은것

전화위복으로 생각하고, 친구들 전자주소도, 제 콤퓨터에 저장 (메일 써버보다는 )
누구 애기가 gmail 이 더안전하다는데, 사실인지 궁금. 
야후에다 물어 보니 이놈이 지워논서류를 복구할수없다니
한심함.

제 컴에 오토 백업 장치 1000 기그 엑스터날 드라이브를 부쳐놧는데,
여기 찾어 보면 있을지?  한번 뒤져 보겟음.

One unexpected benefit!
So many old freinds callled me to see if I am okay.
I realize many people, including myself,  are very naive and are unprepared for this kind of crime.

 

우선 민박사님의 은행에서 이 나쁜 사람이 돈까지 빼가지는 않았는지요.
여하튼 별의 별짓으로 나쁜 짓들 하는 놈들.. 환장할 일이지요.
본인이 잘 모르는 사람한테서의 이멜은 제깍 삭제하시고요
패스워드는 강한 패스워드로 하시고요.. 좀 간간이 바꾸시구요.
그리고 어디에다 적어두셔야지요. 잊어 버리니요.
골치 아픈일이 해결이 되시기를 바랍니다.

Stilll the cause is unknown!

"Norton 360 days" has been installed on my computer, but it says everything is clean!
The support site also says, a "Trojian virus" can do this too: send e-mails from my computer, using fake "From" address, which means when you reply, the  response goes to somewhere else ("spoofing")

If someone got my e-mail password, the thief can use my e-mail account anywhere in the world. He can see, erase, and do  everything in my folder, including fowarding to other addresses.

I had gmail account, rusted. I used it today and it migrates all yahoo addresses and e-mails from yahoo holder in a few minutes and will do it for free for one month.
I can build two identical email programs for one month for easy migration.

Conclusion:
use two e-mail program. If one is hacked and disabled use the next one. Especially, when I am travelling, I will be helpless if one account is disabled like my case yesterday.
We have about 40 highschool classmates in US? and already 4 people got hacked.
10 % chance! 

password:
change often and carry a password b o o k,  a copy/duplicate, with scrambled contents. I
already have one. Use 10 different passwords?
e.g.  2341star  I   know what this number means and  the word means. get translated into another words or contents when I type!

Still I was hacked as I did not change them for 10 years??
Maybe because I used another unsafe computer (somewhere else) to check my e-mai??

 

1.
 I had many calls from those who received the fake mail.
Many of them asked me if returned safely?
They never bothered to change password like me for many years.

2.
Changing the user name and password.

This is not an easy job either, as it asks many security questions: e.g. what is your favorite 5 digit number, favorite animal, etc. 
At times the choices are limited. Luckily, I kept a red book where I wrote everytime I established e-contact or changed them. Some of them, I did not write down. So, a big headache.

3.
One friend called me sayng his bank called him asking him if he was trying to change his password. Which he did not.
A thief has stolen his bank account number and wants to get access to his account!
He had to change his bank account and print new check book, etc.
But bank account number is printed on everycheck you write.
Then, only thing you can do is to minimize check writing to unsafe entities? 

4.
When I worked in prison, they circulated a photo of an add-on card reader attached to
ATM machine (criminal device),
which reads your  card infomation. So, when I use card, I look at the card reader to see if
 there is any strange looking stuff glued to the card reader.

Cyber crime,  this is another world! A chess game.