security Need Investigative help please for TheDomains.com Twitter hacked account

[Vito]

Mods not sure this is the correct forum, please feel free top move it if I have chosen the wrong Forum.

Hello,

First off, I am not affiliated with TheDomains.com at all. It is and always was Mike Berkens site. Raymond Hackney @equity78 is a huge part of TheDomains.com now since MB kinda retired.

So, I was off of work today.. I should have done many things, ran errands, put some domains in auction, domain management, wrote in my own blog (which I have the hardest time ever doing), crypto coin movement since market moved, and a long honey-do list, etc.

I start off my day, looking at the domain blogs, and of course checking my Twitter account. I notice that TheDomains Twitter account got hacked. That kind of pissed me off. Nobody should be able to do that. Some people were trying to help tweet to people to report this hack to Twitter, just press the gear icon, etc. Well, my desktop twitter didnt have one so I created a screenshot showing how to report it from desktop set-up.

Twitter support blows. I am sure that so many fans of The Domains have reported this, and still no help. The knucklehead holding the twitter account for ransom still has full control of the site. This only goes to show the rest of us that have many less followers, that if we ever get hacked, we will never get our accounts back.

So, this starts bothering me. I know Ray for almost 10 years now. Mike Berkens had my favorite portfolio of any big time domainer ever, before selling it. Almost got to meet Mike when in Ft. Lauderdale a couple years ago. Just seems like a very cool guy. I have TONS of respect for TheDomains.com and Mike and Ray.

Ok so, I see this knucklehead hacker tweeting on that account. At one time, he asks for $50 in Bitcoin to get account back. I tweet that I will pay it to get it back to them.

Then he direct messages me.His tweets sounded childish, but his DM's sounded much more civil. So, I feel like I am dealing with a guy down on his luck and he is a hacker, sure I will give him the $50 to get the account back to Mike and Ray.

Thats where I F-ed up.

So, I sent him $50 in Bitcoin from my Bittrex along with the $15 fee thinking he was going to turn over the account. Of course, he didn't

Now, you may call me an idiot, and I get it. I do feel embarrassed. Based on the DM's I really felt like I could fix this. The money was not too big of an issue to me considering the knowledge I have gotten from Mike on TheDomains.com for free for all of these years, and Ray has done 100x more than $50 worth for me in the past 10 years as well. So this could have been a great ending but unfortunately not.

This is where you come in.

Can anyone find this guy? I know there are some brilliant people who frequent this forum and I think I got a lot of information from this scumbag. A couple members I have seen here who have done some great investigative work... @Grilled @promo anyone else that may be able to help, that would be extremely cool!

I am gonna eventually post my whole DM conversation here thru screenshots. I have his Bitcoin address and some text address screenshot that may be helpful. I don't know why, but I am angered by this big time like it is my own site even though it isn't.

Thanks,
Vito

Ok I think I captured entire conversation
Here goes...

 

[Lox]

btw Usually they register secure TW accounts that aren't linked to any emails or phone numbers & can't be pulled (and recovered) in any way. Simple by using f.e. email "*[email protected]", "*[email protected]" "*[email protected]" "*[email protected]" etc (* + number or * + letter).

 

[Vito]

Right Rick has a 7 figure position in Twitter stock, Mike owns 10,000 shares, shareholder lawsuit being filed as well.

This case can definitely make a difference. Shareholders suing their own investment Company will get some monster publicity. Really hope they win and twitter takes breaches of security a little more importantly in the future.

I have a feeling once it is presented to them they will see the potential negative media storm since their own shareholders are suing them and they will just settle out of court though.

 

[garptrader]

This is a prime example of the risks of branding a business on social media. How many of us have seen companies with no domain or a reg fee domain using your domain's keywords as their Youtube channel or Facebook profile? I was looking at some upcoming renewals recently and debating one three-word domain did a quick search on Bing for the domain's keywords. Sure enough their is a business using a hyphen between the second and third word. Another is on the .US while another misspells one of the keywords to get a reg fee domain.

 

[JagG]

.....

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I just checked and got this >>

• Email a link to ad***@t*********.***

Has it been resolved?

There is enough letters for that email to be @thedomains.com.

 

[JagG]

O yeah, shit ... LOL

Admin @Eric Lyon please delete attachment

 

[JagG]

@Grilled ... Thanks man, guess I just had a blonde moment

Fingers crossed all is sorted,

 

[offthehandle]

Shareholders suing their own investment Company will get some monster publicity.

I predict it will be settled out of court without any real publicity.

 

[Jv1999]

Looks like Mcafee got hacked, Urgent: My account was hacked. Twitter has been notified. The coin of the day tweet was not me. As you all know... I am not doing a coin of the day anymore!!!!

https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/946154726307127298

Sorry, but McAfee was not hacked. It's his excuse to shill a coin because he wanted revenge on the trolls tweeting. He knew they were using bots to hawk his twitter and buy his coins of the day, so he made up a fake call just to screw with them.

Too bad he didn't realize he's a cybersecurity VIP, and that this would affect his rep.

If his account really got hacked, how did he regain access in such a short period of time.

 

[Jv1999]

Wow, I didnt realize that twitter has become as important as a domain. Companies and governmentall entities are now really relying on tweeting. . .

That's so weird. I guess hackers might realize this and target vip accounts being managed by school secretaries or paralegals. Like school districts, law firms, hospitals, wow!

I'm paranoid about opening a twitter for one of my sites now... surely TheDomains had a really strong password because they're domainers. You can't be a domainer without being aware of how important account security is.

That said, how did their account get hacked? Can you really not be safe with a password like 38UdjskKppKK378? Is 2fa really a requirement now?

 

[JagG]

Is 2fa really a requirement now?

Yes!

 

[Lox]

You have to generate a temp/backup password & save @ safe place (USB stick, SD card etc). Settings & Privacy > Password > Generate

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@Grilled ... Thanks man, guess I just had a blonde moment

Ha. I almost had a blonde moment as well...

I was in the midst of a rant debating what would occur if somebody were to flood the reset password request via an array of systems using multiple IP's. Would that should flag some sort of threat detention, and warrant an additional flag that may be deemed more critical than previous hack related support requests?

If the bottom line is to get the right human to see the hack, and if time is deemed critical, what is the fastest resolution: Report the hacked account, and encourage others to do the same? File a lawsuit? Tag a twitter support account? Tag a twitter employee? File a lawsuit? Tag members of the press? but then I cooled my jets when I realized what the ten character domain used in the new email could mean..

 

[Chris Hydrick]

when I realized what the ten character domain used in the new email could mean..

Mind you, the email has apparently been changed before. And a new email doesn't necessarily mean rightful owner. Per

 

[Lox]

It's ok! TW bot received q enough attention 4098 #tags (till now), the real brain checked the account and hkr retreat (surrender is not option per hkr rules). It's up to the higher-level brains to do the rest of the job.

 

[offthehandle]

Did anyone else read the legal pdf posted by Rick’s twitter account? Filed in SF.
Rick deactivated his account 6 hrs ago, went out like mission impossible he said.

This tape will self destruct... lol.

 

[Jv1999]

Did anyone else read the legal pdf posted by Rick’s twitter account? Filed in SF.
Rick deactivated his account 6 hrs ago, went out like mission impossible he said.

This tape will self destruct... lol.

The plot thickens!

TWITTER DRAMA HERE WE COME!

 

[Vito]

They are back in business!!!
Congrats Mike and Ray!!!

https://www.thedomains.com/2017/12/30/twitter-account-recovered/

 

[JagG]

TheDomains account has been recovered

https://www.thedomains.com/2017/12/30/twitter-account-recovered

Thank you everyone ... Have a great 2018

 

[jberryhill]

Hate to say this folks if you serve papers on twitter your just lost any connection of getting twitter handle back.

Took around 24 hours.

 

[domainscot]

In this day and age you should have your twitter account to match your keyword domains. Also create the Linkedin company page to match or even the Linkedin Group. Sample Glasgow.com we have @Glasgow and run Glasgow Linkedin Group.

Also have over 400 twitter accounts to match some of our domains. you need to set up seperate email for each account. this takes time. with Linkedin company pages you can cretate a couple each day.

 

[Kate]

I don't have a Twitter account.
I don't have a FB account.
Fewer problems.

 

[Haris]

In this day and age you should have your twitter account to match your keyword domains. Also create the Linkedin company page to match or even the Linkedin Group. Sample Glasgow.com we have @Glasgow and run Glasgow Linkedin Group.

Also have over 400 twitter accounts to match some of our domains. you need to set up seperate email for each account. this takes time. with Linkedin company pages you can cretate a couple each day.

Gotta have exact match instagram too then

 

[domainscot]

totally