Hacking into other people's E-mail accounts

[phantom757]

Hey, I was wondering what kind of trouble someone could get into if they were able to hack several E-mail accounts and then use them to send E-mails and IM's to a whole bunch of people just to piss them off
And if an unsecured wireless connection at Starbuck's coffee was used, how could they find you?

[SloFuze]

I doubt you would get into any trouble unless you were using the emails to commit theft and I really doubt the police would spend time and resourses to find you... as long as you're not sending out death threats. 

[MattGSX]

Hey, I was wondering what kind of trouble someone could get into if they were able to hack several E-mail accounts and then use them to send E-mails and IM's to a whole bunch of people just to piss them off
And if an unsecured wireless connection at Starbuck's coffee was used, how could they find you?

HYPOTHETICAL WORST CASE SCENARIO:
Any email that you write will have headers, including fun things like your IP address, host, yadda yadda yadda. Should someone connect that IP to Starbucks, the company could check the routers logs and find the MAC address assigned to said IP address at the given time. If said MAC address is for something like your internal WLAN card or something like that, and you have your computer registered (with your actual info) with the manufacturer, it could come back to you.
Accessing someone else's email address, especially by means of password cracking/brute force, is illegal (duh). I don't know the actual charge, but you could be charged for every account you access, or every message you send. If your email campaign has negative effects, you may also be guilty of harassment (multiple charges).

REALISTIC SCENARIO:
The average Starbucks employee probably doesn't know how to check their router logs, or even log into their router. Your best bet, however, would be doing this from a public access machine (such as the ones they have in Subway), and to not do anything else that would reveal your identity (log into your own email account, etc, etc). MAC Address spoofing would yield similar results.

IS IT WORTH IT?
Depends how much fun you're planning to have. I mean, people got away with hacking Paris Hilton, Sarah Palin, and many other public figures. As far as I know, they never got busted. Just don't associate your name with it.

[handl3r]

I would not call this hacking, more like getting access to people's email. And the guy who got into Sarah Palin's email is in a bunch of trouble now, mostly from Bill O'Reilly. It is really simple to spoof a MAC address as well and that would make it harder for people to track you down. If you could get the MAC address of the targets machine you could spoof yours to that to be extra sneaky.

[MattGSX]

"hacking". There were supposed to be quotes there, but I was on an Internet terminal and it didn't have the character key I needed. I could have used a word like cracking or keyjacking, but that's more descriptive of the method used.

You could make things even MORE confusing and you could spoof the MAC addresses of other people, so you crack victim a's account and make it look like it was done by victim b, or so on.

[handl3r]

The problem there is that you can't search the entire internet for a MAC address. The ISP's wouldn't even have that information because of routers and such. But if you spoofed to the targets MAC that would certainly be noticed in an investigation. If your target actually goes to Starfucks it would be even better. And if they do that you could just sniff the traffic to get the passwords.

[MattGSX]

yeah. I have two computers that have (or had) internal WLAN cards; one of them has the product info sticker (with serial # and MAC address) on the bottom of the computer for easier reference. If you go to school or work with your intended victim, you could always sneak a peek at their computer to see if you can get it. Alternatively, if you know what kind of computer they have, you can call from that company about a potential WLAN card recall, and have THEM check for a MAC address and serial number. If they didn't buy it, though, they may get all paranoid.

Or, if you know where they live, and if they have wi-fi, you can always log into their router and just copy all the MAC's (assuming the router shows it in the log). Most people don't actually secure their router, and will either leave the password blank or have a factory default. People around here are stupid and use their ssid.

Probably worth more trouble than it's worth, though.

[handl3r]

You don't have to log into their router. You could just sit outside and sniff traffic and find clients.

[rogueclown]

my local traffic smells like chocolate.

 

[reppoh kered]

One solution would be to build your own machine, even if it meant slapping it together from a bunch of old crappy parts. At least some manufacturer would have no idea of pinning a so called "MAC" address to you. But that's often more trouble than it's worth and isn't really too practical with laptops.

[handl3r]

One solution would be to build your own machine, even if it meant slapping it together from a bunch of old crappy parts. At least some manufacturer would have no idea of pinning a so called "MAC" address to you. But that's often more trouble than it's worth and isn't really too practical with laptops.

It takes 2 seconds to spoof a MAC address. They are not good for proving anything.

[mr_doc]

The problem there is that you can't search the entire internet for a MAC address. The ISP's wouldn't even have that information because of routers and such. But if you spoofed to the targets MAC that would certainly be noticed in an investigation. If your target actually goes to Starfucks it would be even better. And if they do that you could just sniff the traffic to get the passwords.

Isn't all webmail encrypted?

[handl3r]

The problem there is that you can't search the entire internet for a MAC address. The ISP's wouldn't even have that information because of routers and such. But if you spoofed to the targets MAC that would certainly be noticed in an investigation. If your target actually goes to Starfucks it would be even better. And if they do that you could just sniff the traffic to get the passwords.

Isn't all webmail encrypted?

I know gmail is. But lots of people who use outlook or some shit wont be.