Habbo Hotel Scam

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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:14 pm

A few years back, I used to be a frequent user of the site 'HabboHotel.com', a virtual social site where you meet people, buy virtual furniture, etc. Luckily for me, I was never into 'buying' stuff as I could not see any point in buying items which you obviously cannot touch.
Anyway, one day this guy mailed me saying something like, 'give me your username and password in exchange for 100 credits'. Now, being the young and abscent-minded kid that I was, and the fact that getting free money + maybe furniture would be cool, I handed the infomation over.
Next day, lo-and-behold, I couldn't log in - hacked, of course. Today, for the first time since I stopped using Habbo (5+ yrs ago - the day of the scam), I checked to see whether my profile remains, finding that it doesn't meaning the scammer probably logged in, found no credits/furniture to steal, and hasn't been on since. My account, I guess, was deleted due to inactivity.
What I got to wondering about, though, was whether these scammers take lists with the various usernames/passwords obtained for future use in scouting the web for more sites you may have signed up for. Because, if I'm honest, I think the username/password I gave to the scammer I've used in the majority of sites I've joined in the past 6+ years, and still use now. I know it's very unlikely he'll attempt to track me after all these years - if he has got a list, which I doubt, there'd probably be loads of members on there - and he/she could even be a kid just addicted to robbing people on Habbo, but if he/she did build a list, how far could they go if they had patiance enough to labouriously search the net for more instances of the same account?
I'm sorry if this is long or in the wrong section or confusing, but this is my first post. I'm not worried about this scam - just curious on how far lads could go with it if they wished.
I'm also tempted to have a go at scambaiting myself soon - it sounds fun!
Thanks for future replies, and thanks for spending the time to read this message!

Hellish Taskmaster Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 537

Wait, do you spend REAL money to buy FAKE stuff on the site? Weird.

If not, then I see no point to the scam.

If you can give me his email, then I'll see if I can bait him.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:31 pm

No, the OP explicitly stated NOT doing that. He/She just wondered whether a scammer might use this info to try other sites the OP has signed up for...

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:16 pm

GSN_fan: Yip, you buy virtual furniture and things to create your own virtual house. You pay for 'Habbo Coins' using debit cards or via text messenging, and with these 'coins', you can buy furniture, and other useless items. I was luckily a tight and (sort of) logical kid - (forgetting about the falling for the scam part, of course) Smile

.
And thanks for the help, but this happened years ago and I didn't note down his username. I'm just thoughtful of how some expert scammers could use my username/password for further use.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:25 pm

You say it happened 5+ years ago, the chances are odd this info is still circulating, but not unthinkable.

If it worries you: change the passwords on the sites and services you value, and never use the same password for several sites, always make them unique, long and strong. (add a capital, a digit and a special character like #,#,&, ) so it would be hard to guess or brute force attack to hack your accounts.

For storing these passwords you could use a free password database like 'keepass' so you'd only have to remember one password (the one of your keepass database)

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:54 pm

My thoughts:

If I tell you that I am a member of the Three Legged People club, username Wicket, password womansonotthat, and then you find a site called the Extra Limb Society with a member called Wicket, you may well try the password womansonotthat just to see if it works.

But why would it interest you?

Unless you know my details of something of use to you (what would that be? Something financial?) and I'm Wicket with the same password there, it really doesn't matter. So Wicket also posts on Suicidals Anonymous and plays online Scrabble? Wow! That's fascinating.

Therefore: as Dutch says, don't use the same username/password on sites that matter to you. Especially ones to do with your money. If you have done so, change them now.

But if someone discovers that you also like collecting pink necklaces as well as playing rugby, it probably doesn't matter. A scammer would probably never search on it. Patience doesn't seem to be a virtue they possess. I've only had one out of over a hundred who googled a name. Another googled a location, but only so he could pretend he knew it. One of my characters has a (deliberate) online presence. No scammer has found it: I needn't have bothered.

train boi Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 697

Its usually script kiddies wanting to rob you, they all hang around on a site called v**de they will discard the details after they have stolen the info

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:23 pm

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll look into changing passwords for important sites.
Btw, I've set up my baiting email account, posted it many times to many guestbooks, and am eagerly awaiting my first victim!

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:52 pm

And Branwen: You're probably right, and since I have no bank details at all on the Internet yet, not many would hold an interest in me. Though when I do start using the web for shopping, I'll ensure I have a strong, strong password which will NEVER be exchanged, Very Happy

.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:52 pm

hit 419baiter's big fresh list, bcc a huncdred or so lads with " please tell me more?" and you'll have more than you know what to do with.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:58 pm

Ok, Nailgunner. If I find posting on guestbooks a slow practise, I'll try your suggestion.
Also, off topic, I read some baiters post in numbers with guestbooks to 'avoid detection from Google'. Any ideas on why people want to avoid Google detection? I thought that would attract more spammers. Thanks.

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:31 am

^^ Possibly to avoid spam (viagra and such.) Personally I never bother to l33t email addresses as I only use disposable ones as catcher accounts.

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

So ... if I know a lad's email address because he's trying to scam me and I offer to send him money by (WU secure services) logging into a fake website requiring him to enter a username and password ... what are the chances on him giving me his email login codes????

Reaping login info from such sites gives opportunities to hack into more profitable information. He gets into and reads your email, finds you have an account with XYZ bank ... logs into your account because you use the same login and password ...

Master Baiter Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 112

Jay leno wrote:

Its usually script kiddies wanting to rob you, they all hang around on a site called v**de they will discard the details after they have stolen the info

Script kiddies? Not really. Most of the time they don't use tools Smile

But not only v**de can be used for it. There are many similar sites (was a member of one before it became script kiddie/scammer central, i have left since)