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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
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