# Scammers



## Roll_Bones (Nov 21, 2013)

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.


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## pacanis (Nov 21, 2013)

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


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

Roll_Bones said:


> 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.
> ...


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!


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

pacanis said:


> 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!!


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## Katie H (Nov 21, 2013)

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


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## pacanis (Nov 21, 2013)

So no one is getting any money? 
lol


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

pacanis said:


> 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.


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## Andy M. (Nov 21, 2013)

pacanis said:


> 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...


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

Andy M. said:


> 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.............!!


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## Roll_Bones (Nov 21, 2013)

Harry Cobean said:


> 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?



Katie H said:


> 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.


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

Roll_Bones said:


> 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?
> 
> 
> ...


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.


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## Roll_Bones (Nov 21, 2013)

Harry Cobean said:


> 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.


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## Harry Cobean (Nov 21, 2013)

Roll_Bones said:


> 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


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## Oldvine (Nov 21, 2013)

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*


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## Janet H (Nov 21, 2013)

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


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## Zagut (Nov 21, 2013)

Does this mean I have to send back the Lamborghini?


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## Janet H (Nov 21, 2013)

Zagut said:


> Does this mean I have to send back the Lamborghini?




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


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## Zagut (Nov 21, 2013)

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.


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## taxlady (Nov 22, 2013)

Janet H said:


> 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.


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## Caslon (Nov 22, 2013)

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.


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## CatPat (Nov 22, 2013)

Yes, I have gotten odd emails but I simply delete them. 

When I first made my gmail account, I received a note from Nigeria. It seems I have a relative there who is stranded and was in need of money. They wanted all my bank account information. I replied to this with one very simple word and I'm sure you know what that was.

With love,
~Cat


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## GotGarlic (Nov 23, 2013)

CatPat said:


> Yes, I have gotten odd emails but I simply delete them.
> 
> When I first made my gmail account, I received a note from Nigeria. It seems I have a relative there who is stranded and was in need of money. They wanted all my bank account information. I replied to this with one very simple word and I'm sure you know what that was.
> 
> ...



Many times, spam emails are sent to randomly generated email addresses. Responding to them, even if it says "click this link to remove your email from our list," confirms that the account is real and the spam will continue.


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## taxlady (Nov 23, 2013)

GotGarlic said:


> Many times, spam emails are sent to randomly generated email addresses. Responding to them, even if it says "click this link to remove your email from our list," confirms that the account is real and the spam will continue.


+1

Or the spam will get worse. They sell lists of confirmed email addresses.


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## GotGarlic (Nov 23, 2013)

taxlady said:


> +1
> 
> Or the spam will get worse. They sell lists of confirmed email addresses.



+1 That, too.


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## Roll_Bones (Nov 27, 2013)

I have noticed emails on occasion from people that are listed as friends on my Facebook page. The problem is the name is right and the address is not.

My wife says she does not get them. I just got another one today from a friend on facebook.  But it was not really him.

I also just delete them and add them to my blocked senders list. I am not sure how good that works, but at least I feel like I did something.......lol


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## Caslon (Nov 27, 2013)

Someone got my email username and password somehow. I got a bunch of emails saying I made a request to change my Facebook password, even tho I didn't.  What blows my mind is when I went to my Webmail email site and checked my Sent items.

One email shown in the Sent items was to someone at yahoo.  I opened up the body of the email and it showed two lines of text.  On one line was my email username and on the other line was my email password!  I've since reset both my FB and email login passwords.

Kaspersky anti-virus doesn't see anything suspicious on my pc.


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## taxlady (Nov 27, 2013)

Bummer Caslon. Do you use those things that ask for your email log in and password to invite your contacts to social sites? I don't trust that.


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## Caslon (Nov 27, 2013)

taxlady said:


> Do you use those things that ask for your email log in and password to invite your contacts to social sites?



I never fall for phising requests. Also, I don't use FaceBook that much at all. Facebook site says it happens that ppl have the same username and password as yours and that they must have requested it.  I'm not buying that.  I also delete emails from ppl whose email address I don't recognize, especially emails with no subject, just an email address.

Anyways I ran Malwarebytes and removed 16 threats.  Things are secure for the moment.


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