Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hacked off

 

While I would hope that if we knew each other well enough that you were a Contact in my Inbox, this would go without saying…I thought I should clarify:

  • I am NOT trying to sell you diet pills “of which quality are good.”  Or the most fashionable shoes. Or more autumn clothes.
  • I don’t have an online store.
  • I would never solicit you via mass email (except maybe for compliments on pictures of my kids via the blog).
  • And I would certainly NEVER, EVER, IN A THOUSAND MILLION YEARS, send you an email with grammar and spelling like what follows:

Welcome vist our company homepage:<http:www.I’mabigfatjerkyhacker.net>Supply you the most fashionable shoes,bags,shirts,sunglasses,watches,and so on we can offer you the most reasonable discount to make you get more profits.we are expecting for your business.Looking forward to your contact and long cooperation with us!

Best Regards :)

  • EVER. NEVER EVER EVER.  NEVER.
  • INFINITY EVER.

So, apparently some lame hacker, with the grammar skills of a first grader and the hacking skills of a post-grad, has gotten into my email account and is sending emails, every few days, from my account.  I think he’s moved onto to random strangers, though, because the addresses that I get back from Postmaster Undeliverable are now unrecognizable. 

My questions are these:

1.  Does this actually make money for these people?  Do people actually click on the link and go buy awesome diet pills from them, or what?

2.  What can I do?  I have had the same email address for as long as I’ve had email.  I love my email address.  It’s SUCH A PAIN to change it because it is on every website and school form that I have filled out in the last 12 years.  Any ideas?

I forward look to yur comments of a nature informational.  Best regards.  :)

23 comments:

Taralyn said...

It is becoming more important to change your passwords on all password protected accounts - I have the same password and change the numbers on the end every 3 months or when it's needed - Example - ABCDEFG1 then next time ABCDEFG2 and so on up to 10 then I start over - I work for Marriott international and it is required that we change ours every 3 months so I do the same with all my accounts at home as well - It works and keeps HACKERS OUT!!!! Good Luck!!!

Jeanelle said...

people are big jerks and losers. I'm sorry this happened to you. Going to change my passwords now...sigh...

Jenna said...

I just changed my email address because stupidbellsouth decided to use Yahoo as their email provider & now my husband can't send me emails from work. I sent an email out to everyone that I could changing to a gmail account. I kept the old & get stuff from people in the new.

My facebook account got hacked into a few months ago. The jerks solicited all of my online friends for money sent to a Western Union account. I now have a long password that I suppose I will change frequently. Sorry - it's such a horrible pain that this has happened to you. :(

the wrath of khandrea said...

WHAT? and here i've been planning a super thank you gift for helping me in my weight loss journey!

jeeze. freakin idiots.

the wrath of khandrea said...

so, just to make sure we're straight... the handbag which quality is good that i've been using for a month now? not you?

the wrath of khandrea said...

so... for which i have thankfully owned a purchase of your type, namely fabulous autumn shoes, and for all reasons good am to wear in the cool weather and in your gratitude...

no?

the wrath of khandrea said...

of which type are most...???

never mind. i guess not.

Abbie said...

Oh dear. I was wondering why you were sending those. I have no advice. I would just switch to gmail, but I understand not wanting to switch. Tricky.

Hazen5 said...

Dang, just the thought of changing mine scares me! It's such a personal thing, do you feel violated?

Andrea cracks me up!

Erika said...

so all those diet pills and shoes won't be coming to my house after all?

Cami said...

Oh lame.
So sorry.

diane said...

I've gotten some of these emails from you and figured it was a freaky hacker. That stinks.

By the way, I was wearing those brown ballet flats with a sweater and jeans. They are great every day shoes.

Lauren in GA said...

Clever title and I loved your closing line.

I'm so sorry. I am also sorry that I was one of the idiots that e-mailed you back and asked if you meant to send this to me. I honestly had figured that someone had duped you in some way is why I e-mailed back.

Andrea kills me.

AMY said...

I have wondered what those emails were about. I tried the link thinking you were telling people your secret on where to find low priced fashionable clothing... however, everything seemed really expensive.

So, that just sucks - I am not nearly computer savvy enough to know how to fix the problem without changing you email address. But... god luck!

Christie said...

Ha! I got one of those and figured you weren't trying to sell me diet pills.

I HATE HACKERS. Can you change your password or can they rehack in under the one?

Brigitta said...

I got nothing....but that sucks! I hate hackers. Don't they have better things to do all day?

queenieweenie said...

that STINKS!!!

Did you get my email? Hope it helped.

Margaret said...

Is it a yahoo account? This just happened to my friend today too and she has a yahoo account.

You probably already changed your password on that account, right? That would be step 1.

This happened to me on my yahoo account once and it was fine once I reset the password.

I need to work on my passwords myself but I did find this great article yesterday on gmail's blog on how to choose smart passwords.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/choosing-smart-password.html

And I understand what you mean on changing your email. But what I have done is gradually change it. First I email my friend and then I contact school, etc. Then I keep checking the older email and over time I let those companies/people know I have changed emails and eventually it's done. I like gmail. It's free and I have less spam than my old yahoo account.

Good luck!

bloggingchristy said...

Yeah right, Jessica, it's probably Ryan! He probably set up that website so he could get all your friends to buy lots of stuff and make money on us. That sounds like him. I'm not complaining as long as he uses the money to fly you guys down to see us!

By the way you have some hilarious blog friends! I was laughing so hard when I read some of the comments!

Terra said...

computer problems, hackers all the like just stink. They weigh on your mind, they mess up daily life and in general set us back a bit. I work with several email addresses. 2 of them are "junk" I use them for ALL things online - I have one that only my closest friends and family have and I have, over the years, had to change that one. It is usually when a friend gets a worm that attacks multiple computers. Anywhoo...all I can say is it sucks, I am sorry it happened to you and hopefully it doesn't cause more than a Tylenol worthy headache.

abbyandcompany said...

Oh, Oh! What did you do? This just happened to me and I have had my email since '99. I don't want to change it, but can they actually get into your box or do they just bypass it and send phony emails?

You look great...BTW.

Stamp4hobby said...

Did you ever figure this out? If not, I can help you get rid of it. Let me know. :)

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