Scammers

[Roll_Bones]

Dear forum members and administrators.

I received an email this morning supposedly from this site. It was in reference to the "private messaging" feature.
It looked as if someone had sent me a PM from this site. But being cautious, I came here to check the PM and there was no PM for me.

I have not deleted this email yet or clicked on any of the links included in the email. I will keep it in case the administrators here might want to see it, or the members may want to see it.
I can copy and post it, if needed.

It is a scam. That is for sure. A relative has passed and 1 million dollars is at stake and that I should contact a reverend in regards to getting the money.
Since they are using "Discuss Cooking" as the vehicle, I am certain you guys and gals would want to know.

 

[pacanis]

It sounds like something has infiltrated the area where the forum members' email addresses are stored.
Is it from a registered forum member?

 

[Harry Cobean]

Dear forum members and administrators.

I received an email this morning supposedly from this site. It was in reference to the "private messaging" feature.
It looked as if someone had sent me a PM from this site. But being cautious, I came here to check the PM and there was no PM for me.

I have not deleted this email yet or clicked on any of the links included in the email. I will keep it in case the administrators here might want to see it, or the members may want to see it.
I can copy and post it, if needed.

It is a scam. That is for sure. A relative has passed and 1 million dollars is at stake and that I should contact a reverend in regards to getting the money.
Since they are using "Discuss Cooking" as the vehicle, I am certain you guys and gals would want to know.

yeah,looks like quite a few of us had the same email.i bounced it on to .40,frankz,pf etc & they have dealt with it.there was also a post on a few of the forum's about fake id,green cards etc etc,this morning.they've been dealt with too.can't believe that the scammers think that people would fall for it...but i guess some do & that's why the scammers do it!

 

[Harry Cobean]

It sounds like something has infiltrated the area where the forum members' email addresses are stored.
Is it from a registered forum member?

it was.it was from someone called revc.i'll bounce mine on to you pac.just in case you were feeling left out mate!!

 

[Katie H]

We are aware of the situation and have taken care of it. And, yes, it was a scam.

 

[pacanis]

So no one is getting any money?
lol

 

[Harry Cobean]

It sounds like something has infiltrated the area where the forum members' email addresses are stored.
Is it from a registered forum member?

don't think they've hacked into the members emails pac.i think rb means that he had received the usual email,notifying him that he had received a pm,on dc.

 

[Andy M.]

So no one is getting any money?
lol

Not unless you let the Nigerian Prince use your bank account to store tens of millions of dollars...

 

[Harry Cobean]

Not unless you let the Nigerian Prince use your bank account to store tens of millions of dollars...

.....and borrow your credit cards,mind you he does that anyway.just wish he'd ask first.............!!

 

[Roll_Bones]

don't think they've hacked into the members emails pac.i think rb means that he had received the usual email,notifying him that he had received a pm,on dc.

Yes, that is correct Harry. But they have the email addresses to be able to send one to me and the others.
Are you saying they hacked the PM feature on this forum, but do not have our emails?

We are aware of the situation and have taken care of it. And, yes, it was a scam.

Once again. Do they have our email addresses, or did they circumvent the PM feature here on this forum to send out bogus PM reminders?

I am not personally concerned about falling for the scam, but I am concerned that they may indeed have my email address.

 

[Harry Cobean]

Yes, that is correct Harry. But they have the email addresses to be able to send one to me and the others.
Are you saying they hacked the PM feature on this forum, but do not have our emails?



Once again. Do they have our email addresses, or did they circumvent the PM feature here on this forum to send out bogus PM reminders?

I am not personally concerned about falling for the scam, but I am concerned that they may indeed have my email address.

no,rb,i'm sure they haven't hacked anything.what happens is that they register as a member.they send the scam pm to their "victims",me included.as soon as the pm hits your's,mine & everyone else's dc mailbox,the dc system automatically generates a notification email to your personal email,to let you know that you have just received a pm.it's an automatic feature of the dc,pm system,unless you turn it off.

 

[Roll_Bones]

no,rb,i'm sure they haven't hacked anything.what happens is that they register as a member.they send the scam pm to their "victims",me included.as soon as the pm hits your's,mine & everyone else's dc mailbox,the dc system automatically generates a notification email to your personal email,to let you know that you have just received a pm.it's an automatic feature of the dc,pm system,unless you turn it off.

Thank you Harry. Got it now. No worries on my end.

I was going to send the reverend the phone number of the local FBI office. But now that i know what happened, no sense in actually giving them my email address.

 

[Harry Cobean]

Thank you Harry. Got it now. No worries on my end.

I was going to send the reverend the phone number of the local FBI office. But now that i know what happened, no sense in actually giving them my email address.

no problemo rb!.i'm sure that if there had been a breech of security/hacked our emails,the mods would have let everyone know immediately

 

[Oldvine]

Sadly too many people forward message without deleting the previous email addresses. I've received forwards with 100s of exposed email addresses. Eventually they all get harvested. Some emails include links to favorite sites and those also get harvested. In this case, maybe from the forwarding of a recipe or kitchen tip.

It's so easy to use the BCC feature when emailing to a bunch of people since everyone in the mailing do not see all the other addresses. All my outgoing message include the following: PLEASE.....Before you forward this.....Delete my email address and any other email addresses that might included.
Please send your group messages as blind carbon copies (bcc) as this helps to reduce SPAM, VIRUSES, & IDENTITY THEFT. Thanks

 

[Janet H]

Sorry for the confusion folks. Yes, we had a Nigerian spammer register and send bogus PMs to some members (very sneaky) . The spammer has been dispatched and we took the extra measure of deleting the PMs they sent when the account was removed so that there would be less chance of someone getting fooled by the PM. That said, the automated notices that were sent when the scammy PM's were initiated couldn't be retrieved. You can just just ignore them.

No private account info was compromised. Thanks for your many alerts about this

 

[Zagut]

Does this mean I have to send back the Lamborghini?

 

[Janet H]

Does this mean I have to send back the Lamborghini?

I will be happy to store it for you...

 

[Zagut]

Something tells me I need to keep tight Odometer records for said "storage".

You got a deal as long as you keep up the payments until the good Rev. Christopher comes through.

Of course you'll receive full reimbursement once the check clears and I get my low mileage car back.

 

[taxlady]

Sorry for the confusion folks. Yes, we had a Nigerian spammer register and send bogus PMs to some members (very sneaky) . The spammer has been dispatched and we took the extra measure of deleting the PMs they sent when the account was removed so that there would be less chance of someone getting fooled by the PM. That said, the automated notices that were sent when the scammy PM's were initiated couldn't be retrieved. You can just just ignore them.

No private account info was compromised. Thanks for your many alerts about this

That's what I figured.

I use spamgourmet for my email address here. I have listed DC as a "trusted sender". The notification went to my spamgourmet email addy. It came through the spamgourmet system and the subject line was, "New Private Message at Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums (trusted: support@discusscooking.com)". So, I knew the scammer had used the DC PM system. I didn't bother reading the PM (in the email notification) until I saw that it was missing from my PM In box. I figured someone had notified the mods and they had deleted those PMs.

 

[Caslon]

I've been getting a rash of emails lately that attempt to hack my email account. In fact, one managed to and my emails would not show up in my box. I called my cable provider and he steered me to their webmail site were my messages were listed. One email was from my email provider saying someone had accessed my email from outside my PC, so they informed me my account was locked for 24 hours and to go to the link provided and enter my username and password. I did so and 10 minutes later my account was back up and working. There's been a lot criticism lately about the lack of robustness of security by email account providers.