Yahoo cam permission & view invisible contact

unfortunately caine is correct – best thing to do is unplug the cam when not in use – I’m not gonna go into all details and try to prove my point – if you wanna take it for what it is, fine, if you wanna believe yahoo and users are impenetrable, fine – that’s all up to you. Majority of all users claim this and that – only a small percent know what they are doing – everybody wants proof if this and that, why would you need to know? – I hope her friend has had this matter taken care of.

I’ve locked Caine’s account for verbal diarhea. He hasn’t been back since the day he first joined anyway. I still think his mysterious software that he spoke of is vaporware.

I had a friend do this to me. There are a few things they can actually do to get access to your cam without you knowing, BUT, NOT how most people are thinking. He’s one of those hacker types and played a joke on me. He took a picture of my dorm while i was out away from my computer… turned yahoo on and had my status as ‘dumba$$’… and made my desktop picture the picture of my room that he took with my cam while i was away.

He said there are three ways to do it:

1. A few programs allow “Anonymous” webcam requests, it is KNOWN to the user when they have a webcam on and you request, but it just doesnt show your id. THEY DO KNOW YOU ARE REQUESTING THOUGH, he said there is NO WAY TO FAKE THIS also.

2. In the yahoo options they can somehow change your preferences file to make it so that their id is an authorized user. An authorized user can request your cam w/o you knowing but you WILL SEE ANOTHER VIEWER on the webcam ‘___ people are watching you” thing.

3. They can do a script kid program, there’s like hundreds of them. All are basically the same, once they get on your puter they have almost unlimited control… they disable virus scanners, capture keystrokes (your yahoo password and change your options), they can run programs when you are away from your computer and control your screen as if it was theirs (i saw him hit my start button, run yahoo, then sign on and start sending a message to myself).

They can also view your webcam, turn it on if its off (a light is on most cams telling you they are on, but it has nothing to do with yahoo)

Now… by far the most dangerous is the 3rd one. With a program like that on your computer they can actually see your friend on the webcam without him/her knowing, can take snapshots and download them onto their own computer, steal passwords, log conversations, do just about anything as if they were sitting next to your friend.

The best way to fix it is to unplug your internet connection, change your yahoo password, scan with an online virus scanner like housecall from trendmicro, and goto msconfig and disable any programs that are not normal to what they run.

J

Logitech does supply a (semi-transparent) lens cover with most, if not all of their webcams. I’m pretty sure there are other manufacturers who do the same.

As ahockeyjock said, there’s a light on many webcams that’ll tell you the cam is in use. If you don’t have the cam somewhere where you can always see the light, or if your cam doesn’t have a light like that, and if you’re afraid someone might want to mess with your computer and cam, then just unplug the cam. Most are USB cams and thereby don’t require you to turn off your computer before you unplug the webcam (nor when you plug it back in).
If the USB port is on the back of your computer and not easy to reach, you might want to consider buying a short USB extention cable so you can unplug the cam by pulling the cam’s cable out of the extention cable.

Of course its possible, just cause you “know it alls” dont see the program or have heard of it doesnt mean they dont exist, now im no computer genius but what is to stop say a expert hacker or such making such a program???????? nothing of course and naturally such a prog would be highly illegal so they are not going to advertise it maybe only give it to thier tightest hacker buddies, you ppl cant be so niave to think that nothing sinister goes on on the internet the best way to protect yourself is with a top anitvirus progam and a top firewall program, i think you brainiacs ought to realise just cause you dont know a prog exists doesnt mean some one cant privately create one.
😀

Try again. She still gave permission to view. Big deal. There are also programs to record when you view. In your little story nothing special was done. Permission was given at some point, plain and simple.

But my point still stands. At some point permission was given to someone! This is not the same as directly viewing someone’s cam without them authorizing it or even knowing. I understand what you are saying and I agree. But the question was about viewing without permission or knowledge, not “what can someone do once I let them view?”.

You have joined this forum, so that adds you to the list of “know it alls”. I for one am not saying it is impossible. I only say that there is no easily available programs at this time. Which brings us to…

Try doing a search for “warez”, “booters”, “trojans”, or “virii”(viruses). Or a number of other things. I guess these aren’t illegal, because someone made them, and someone advertised it. You don’t think someone would brag at some point? And if “we” think “nothing sinister goes on on the internet”, then why do “we” suggest AV programs and firewalls?

Common sence comes into play, also. If you have let “only one” person view, then suddenly the whole world knows, cut that person off! I would bet it would stop, wouldn’t you? And if it didn’t, then start looking for another reason.

This is all well and good that you both are arguing the fine points of completely humiliating another person, whether or not she “deserves” it or not, it’s still W-R-O-N-G! Thought I’d spell it out since maybe you didn’t know that word. Did you ever stop to think that maybe instead of arguing ways that it could be done you might argue ways that it could be stopped, or that little girls could be WARNED of this? I mean, imagine if the female in question was your 12-year-old sister who was fooled by some pedofile? Why is it that people like to argue about making a problem worse rather than solving it?