O/T: My Gmail account was compromised today...

[Smokey Joe]

My Gmail account was taken over and sent spam to my contacts. Sorry, it is fixed now and Gmail caught it but seems to have sent a bunch out before they could stop it.

vintagecards@gmail.com is my email...

[Kawika]

Mark: I sent you the handling fees you requested via Western Union and am awaiting receipt of my "inheritance". Thank you so much and God Bless You.

[Jim VB]

Mark,


So, does that mean you are NOT a Nigerian banker?

[Smokey Joe]

Ha,Ha...I am still scratching my head wondering how they got my password.

David...your e97 is on it's way to beautiful Hawaii, and hopefully not Nigeria.

[Pup6913]

I got one the other day from another board member. Hope this is not a pattern.

[slidekellyslide]

I got one the other day from another board member. Hope this is not a pattern.

Me too...a board member with an AOL account sending out SPAM for Viagra.

[Pup6913]

Me too...a board member with an AOL account sending out SPAM for Viagra.

Thats exactly what I got. To bad I use Cialis:D (just jokin)

[Smokey Joe]

How the heck do they hack into our accounts?!?!?!

I don't click on any links in my spam folder...

[HRBAKER]

So I guess I should disregard the invitation to go deer hunting? Seriously, I hope it's all fixed now. I have received a couple such e-mails in the last week.

[Pup6913]

So I guess I should disregard the invitation to go deer hunting?

Is that a no then:confused: :D To funny. To each their own

[chaddurbin]

i delete all hobby-related emails, nothing good can come out of them. never had a problem.

[FUBAR]

Mark

You probably had a small worm virus, trojan type virus, or spyware/ malware in your system.

All you have to do is go to a website that has been compromised and they get your passwords that are not encrypted. (email, facebook, yahoo etc..)
Don't worry, banking ones are encrypted.

Best thing you can do is do a scan of your computer for spyware and viruses, then change your IP address, and finally change your passwords last.

Jim

[Rich Klein]

the funny part is as far as I know, my email address sends the spam back to me and to no one else

Rich

[Smokey Joe]

Just did a complete scan with my stopzilla software, found nothing.

Also, how do you change an I.P. address, i thought At&T (my provider) decides what it will be.

[Wite3]

I have had the same email address for 25 years (really!) and this week was the first time it was ever hacked. I fixed it but it took a day or two. I am sorry for the problem and I thank Andrew and Dan for pointing it out to me...hopefully this will not happen again.

Joshua Levine
wite3@aol.com

Not a viagra salesman (although my father is...he is a pharmacist!)

[Smokey Joe]

Wow Josh, there was email in 1985?

[Wite3]

As a matter of fact there was...I bought my first IBM PC in Dec of 1985. A year later I bought an add on modem. The modem came with a program that I think I beta tested in the winter of 1986 or spring of 1987 called Promenade. It was windows based and was the precursor to America Online and only available to IBM users. I chose my first email address for this as my current email beginning + the @promenade.com extension. When several services were combined around 1989 into AOL, they changed my screenname to the @aol.com extension. I have had it ever since. So not quite 25 years but certainly 22 or 23. If you really want, I have actual emails from back then printed on hard and I can check the dates. And this week was the first time I have ever had it hacked...reset my password and made it much more difficult. Hopefully, won't happen again until the year 2035 or so.

Joshua

[FUBAR]

To reset your router or modem or whatever you have... you simply unplug it for a minute and then plug it back in and it resets and searches for an available IP address from your server.



if it keeps happening, try a different malware searching tool, there are quite a few free ones online.

Personally, i have several email addresses. I have one i use just to sign up for websites. So if they sell my email addy or whatever, i dont care, i dont use it for anything important. I have a private one for my close friends, and important items, and then i have a third for everything else.