The Forge Forums

General Forge Forums => Site Discussion => Topic started by: Callan S. on September 27, 2010, 10:30:18 PM

Title: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Callan S. on September 27, 2010, 10:30:18 PM
This is odd - I'm getting hundreds of spam e-mails. But the 'To' field has a few names I'm familiar with. I wont say the full e-mail addies, but stuff like sorcerer, lumpley, dindenver, moreno, greyorm, etc at the start and even my own e-mail. This looks like a forge list of e-mails? When the forge was hack crashed awhile back, could someone have simply copied all the e-mail addies as well?

I'm not tech savvy, so I don't know why if they are 'to' these other addresses, they are going to me.

Strange.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Lance D. Allen on September 28, 2010, 01:08:05 AM
I did suddenly start getting a massive amount of spam e-mails myself just this morning, but I didn't recognize any of the addresses.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: masqueradeball on September 28, 2010, 04:01:08 AM
ditto
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Sander on September 29, 2010, 02:00:16 AM
I registered here many years ago with an email address unique to this site, and am now starting to get spam to that unique email address. It looks like the forum database has been compromised. This has been happening quite a lot with various forums over the last year. I'd recommend forum admins to update the forum software to the latest version, use stronger passwords for admin access, and ideally to find out exactly how this happened.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: lumpley on September 29, 2010, 07:48:40 AM
Thanks for the heads-up. I'm on it.

-Vincent
site admin
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Christoph Boeckle on October 01, 2010, 05:45:25 AM
Hi

I was receiving tons of that spam as well on my yahoo account (which is the address given with my Forge account). A recurring pattern in the email subject was "RE:" followed by a single funny character (scientific symbols for male and female, stars, smiley, etc.) Since one or two days I'm not getting these mails any more.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: lumpley on October 01, 2010, 08:23:36 AM
Could you all check something for me? Up at the top of the screen, hit "profile," then on the left hit "account related settings." There's an option called "hide email address from public?"

While you've been receiving this spam, has your email address been hidden from the public?

Thanks!

-Vincent
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: David Artman on October 01, 2010, 11:28:04 AM
I have not hidden the email from public (but I have changed its redirect to head to  my spam account).

What would the email accomplish if hidden? Let's the forum and admins notify us?
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: lumpley on October 01, 2010, 11:42:55 AM
Yes.

As far as I can tell, the database is secure. The spam is almost certainly just bots trawling users' profile pages.

-Vincent
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Erik Weissengruber on October 01, 2010, 12:12:56 PM
Could you make a warning for new members to the site?

Or why not disable the option of having public emails entirely?
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: lumpley on October 01, 2010, 12:19:20 PM
Unfortunately, SMF doesn't provide the option to by-default hide users' emails. I might be able to modify the template to take it out.

A warning is a good idea.

-Vincent
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: C. Edwards on October 01, 2010, 04:26:57 PM
Hey Vincent,

I was receiving the spam as well, and my email address is hidden.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Callan S. on October 03, 2010, 03:09:53 AM
Mine is checked to hidden as well, and as said, I got the e-mails.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: lumpley on October 03, 2010, 09:50:10 AM
Okay, thanks. I'll keep looking.

-Vincent
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Callan S. on October 03, 2010, 08:57:47 PM
I should have mentioned, I stopped recieving mine around the time Christoph's stopped as well. Just in case I gave the impression that I was still getting them.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Christoph Boeckle on October 04, 2010, 10:00:18 AM
My email is public and that's fine with me (I accept the risks).
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: M. J. Young on October 07, 2010, 07:40:27 PM
Vincent, another data point:  my address is not hidden, and I was not getting Forge-related Spam (unless the filters on my account got it and I didn't know it).

--M. J. Young
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Christoph Boeckle on October 17, 2010, 06:46:44 PM
Hello Vincent

I've started getting some again, starting 00:04 AM central European time (18 October). Latest mail subject is "◇RE: xchnmn2 vrmvqr172" (the funny character is still there, but now what follows is longer).
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: C. Edwards on October 17, 2010, 08:04:09 PM
I received more today as well.
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Seamus on October 19, 2010, 08:45:34 AM
I just started another thread on this, then I noticed this one.

I have been getting them too, and they look like they are connected to forge related emails. I checked the IP of the sender, they are from China. But the names of the emails that sent them look spanish and the subjects have wierd symbols (IP 115.49.94.110, emails ana_esparrago_perez@hotmail.com (etc),
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Callan S. on October 20, 2010, 03:51:50 AM
Ya, they've come back with a vengence again. They are mysterious in how they behave and look - someone make an RPG about them...heh
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Seamus on October 20, 2010, 09:12:40 AM
It is a foreign IP so this may be useless, but for anyone who wants to, here is how to report cyber crime (including stuff like this):

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm#cc
Title: Re: Weird spam with forge related addresses?
Post by: Christoph Boeckle on October 25, 2010, 06:16:12 AM
Hello

Mine have stopped again around the 21st. I'll stop reporting on this issue from now on.