Forum Security

[Pete Thomas]

A couple of us have had private messages that appear to be a typical Nigerian scam. This is a bit sad as (apart from one post offering free iPods) we've been rather unaffected by such things.

This may be inevitable as the forum gets bigger and has a larger web presence, hopefully I won't have to disable private messaging but it might have to happen if this occurs a lot.

[color:red]HOWEVER:[/color]

The issue of forum security was raised.

Don't panic please, but be aware that nothing on the www can be guaranteed completely secure, so please make sure you do not register here with an identical username and password as you use for your bank account.

If you already have please PM me to get your password changed.

(EDIT) Don't do that, you can change it yourself in your Personal settings.

 

[Bobby G]

Pete, I was wondering if, as this is 'your' site, you were the intended 'target' and I got caught in the crossfire simply by being in the Breakfast Room at the time the PM was sent.

I don't really know how PM works, is it possible to send to multiple users simultaneously, or to target whoever logged in, or must it be one message to one recipient only?

If it's any use to you, the time-stamp on the PM that I got was 16:20:46 on the 14th

Cheers, Bob

 

[Pete Thomas]

I'm sure it is someone targeting saxophone teachers. They would have found the forum from my site (which is easily findable on Google if you type saxophone lessons or saxophone teachers).

So with any luck its just a one off. (if you get my meaning)

 

[ken]

There is a spate of forum targeting going around. Situations vary from people registering on forums for the purpose of sending illicit PM's, to actual hackings of the members details database. A factor to look out for is, receiving an e-mail notification of a PM which is 'spoofed' to look as though it came from the forum when in fact it originates from a totally different IP. Usually the pr@ts responsible will either come through a proxy or a block IP such as hotmail/yahoo in which case banning an IP does little more than prevent all hotmail (for example) users from using the forum.

One other thing to look out for is any PM with a strange link or a picture in it. One particular forum has had members spammed with such messages and clicking on the link or picture has resulted in a "key logger" being installed on the unsuspecting recipients machine. A worry there (should a keylogger gets installed) might be the close links to Pete's charity/donation schemes on the main and forum sites.

I'm undecided at the moment as to whether the Breakfast Room has been hit by a lone spammer or if the database has been hacked. I've definitely had a lot more of one particular type/format of spam in my e-mails since this first happened. Also a few days ago the forum seemed to slow to a crawl and I had numerous wierd PM notification pop-ups, this has me wondering if it was some kind of illicit interference at server level, esp., if, as Pete mentioned, it is possible to download the whole site... is this maybe what was happening during this slow down, is the member detail database on the same server!. I wonder Pete, do the site stats show any unusually high throughput on a certain day.

One thing is for sure, the pillocks that do these things need stringing up by their testicles

 

[paulsax]

I feel highly honoured that I got one too, as a returning "oldie" it is wonderful to have my unrecognised genius acknowledged.
Seriously though this has to be one of the most bizarre scams of this type I have seen, the thought of someone coming all the way from nigeria to take lessons from me on this thing called saxophone, I could give some tips on how to develop a serious case of GAS, is really quite bizarre. There are some wonderful sites where people have strung the scammers along, with some interesting results, but this is not without it's dangers and seems to result in death threats on a regular basis. On balance I'll just PM Oete, nigerian for Pete, and get my password changed.

 

[Rogerb]

If you have some time to kill, there's an Australian guy who just loves writing funny letters, especially to wind-up these Nigerian scammers.
Have a look at : http://sweetchillisauce.com/index.html

I particularly liked the ones allegedly from Princess Tikka Masala 😀

 

[ken]

Here we go. More SPAM.

Now we have a sexy models on-line thread!!!!!

 

[Bobby G]

Perhaps if we ignore him he'll go away.

Hi Sammy...!

I've had a very odd one recently, not through this site however. It looked like the usual kind of 'give us yer bank details to get rich' mail, supposedly from a FSA bod. I was feeling slightly tetchy so I replied to it in a, erm, fairly terse way (expecting it to get a message delivery failure report), but within hours he;d replied to it. Twice.

Given the appalling spelling, (no for know, hugh for huge etc) and the fact it was all written IN CAPITALS, I felt it unlikely the man was a genuine FSA type with a once-in-a-lifetime offer. I said as much when I replied, also saying he seemed a bit desperate.

I thought that would be an end to it, but no, I got another reply with a phone number (the one in my 'International' thread). It's as if we have entered into a dialogue and that I am the only person he wants to help.

Should I keep replying and see where it goes, or shall I just let it lie? Any ideas what he's after?

Cheers, Bob

 

[Pete Thomas]

Ken wrote:
Here we go. More SPAM.

Now we have a sexy models on-line thread!!!!!

Not any more we don't

 

[Rogerb]

I thought I was being accused of summat naughty there 😱

 

[oliver_bentley]

Pete Thomas wrote:

Ken wrote:
Here we go. More SPAM.

Now we have a sexy models on-line thread!!!!!

Not any more we don't

Awww and before we all had a chace to browse through too 😛

 

[ken]

Rogerb wrote:
I thought I was being accused of summat naughty there 😱

Well that is a very fetching avatar you have Roger <only joking> 😉

 

[ken]

Pete Thomas wrote:

Ken wrote:
Here we go. More SPAM.

Now we have a sexy models on-line thread!!!!!

Not any more we don't

T'was the i'Pod guy again with a similar url to click on.

Has he been deleted, or just his message.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Just the message. I was hoping the iPod spam was just a "one off". I'd delete that one too if I could be bothered to find it.

 

[Pete Thomas]

While on the subject of forum security and private messages, just thought I'd mention that (as with any forum probably), these aren't completely private.

For one thing I can see them all if I want to (but don't want). Any website owner is responsible for what is on their site so I presume this is necessary. I also believe it's possible for anyone with just a small amount of knowledge to access the files (ie if you know how the file structure of Simpleforum works it's not difficult to work out the URL for the directory that keeps the PMs).

So everyone please view Private Messages here as just slightly less public than posting on the forum, it's NOT as secure as emailing each other so keep your credit card details off them.

 

[ken]

Pete Thomas wrote:
Just the message. I was hoping the iPod spam was just a "one off". I'd delete that one too if I could be bothered to find it.

http://www.breakfastroom.co.uk/index.cgi?fid=06&topic_id=1159760588&sblogged=1

 

[ken]

Pete Thomas wrote:
While on the subject.....

Probably a daft request, but do you have the facilities to delete all my PM's (in and out), en block. Save me going through each one and clicking delete.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Ken wrote:

Pete Thomas wrote:
While on the subject.....

Probably a daft request, but do you have the facilities to delete all my PM's (in and out), en block. Save me going through each one and clicking delete.

I'll have a go

 

[ken]

Pete Thomas wrote:
I'll have a go

Thanks very much for doing that Pete.