Recent Events...

[Durandal7]

Some of you may be wondering why my username has changed and why my profile has dissapeared. I have done this because of privacy concerns, Macrumors is a lot more popular then it used to be and I no longer wish to be as open except with members whom I trust. jef left because of the trolls and that is why I have done this.

Someone has been sending me strange e-mails, they have apparently been finding information on me and attempting to hack a server I help to maintain. They do not realise that this was their worse move imaginable as I have gotten their e-mail account taken off-line and have convinced their ISP to terminate their account. My friends and I have dabbled in hacking and know how to trace them, to quote Alphatech "Don't ******* with me"

I will restore most of my profile soon. In the meantime I have decided to keep the new username.

-Durandal7 AKA asurace

[vniow]

Oh, hi Durandal7/asurance. Stalkers are creepy huh? Hope you catch them. :)

[Durandal7]

Already did catch him :)
It's good to have network and UNIX geeks as friends. Very weird e-mails though, I got the first one a few days ago but yesterday he revealed he had personal information on me. Barely legible, rambling on about "FlAmS" and "TroOOLS"

[bousozoku]

Shame that. Some people have such a miserable life that their only happiness is to upset others.

I hope, for your sake, that history doesn't repeat itself. :)

[teabgs]

oh that sucks man,....weird...seems like the ****** has hit the fan...MR is getting a bit too big for her britches I'd say....I think things will calm down a after a while...i've been getting some weird emails too....alledgedly from myself...containing HTML files as attachments and I recieved one that was sent back from the university of vermont....which I know nobody at which said I sent an email that had a virus attached...

:( :mad:

[Durandal7]

That sounds like the same s*** this guy was pulling. He kept sending me viruses with things in the subject like "WinXP Patch" and "OS X Update"
:mad:

[King Cobra]

I think that the worst/most common virus events/occassions already happened. Remember back to "Code Red"? Luckily, however, only PCs fell victim, not Macs. :eek:

There are probably a lot of people out there, who try and get personal info on others, either for fun/passing the time, or for criminal actions. With the upcoming 9/11 deal going on I think some people have hit the cuckoo's nest (uh, is that how you spell it?) and overturned.

I'm glad that issue has been resolved, but there is one other: Do we now have to call you Durandal? :p

[teabgs]

Originally posted by Durandal7
That sounds like the same s*** this guy was pulling. He kept sending me viruses with things in the subject like "WinXP Patch" and "OS X Update"
:mad:

this sucks....I never got any email with text that was talking about "FlAmS" and "TroOOLS"

Unfortunately I deleted them and cant remeber aby if the subjects but they'd have subjects such a "x.html" or "xPatch" etc...

********* really. One even had an .exe file...dumbass, I use a mac :rolleyes:

AND THEN my girlfriend got a weird email that said she sent one out with a virus....now thats weird and not cool if its the same jerkoffs, cause they'd of had to have hacked the school's server to get that email...we figured it was something with the email server here....maybe not, Don't like the sound of this :mad:

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by teabgs

********* really. One even had an .exe file...dumbass, I use a mac :rolleyes:


Like I'm going to be in a real hurry to install a WinXP patch :rolleyes:

And KC, I don't care what you call me but I think I'm keeping this username.

[teabgs]

wait.....I saved the last one...cause you never know when you'll need it ;)


the subject is TABINDEX....alledgedly from myself. Now, it doesnt say theres an attachment but when I open it there IS one....its called "MREGKBCM.HTM"

theres no text in the body of the email

[King Cobra]

>(teabgs) ********* really. One even had an .exe file...dumbass, I use a mac

>(Duran) Like I'm going to be in a real hurry to install a WinXP patch :rolleyes:

Those [explicit] might as well send a virus for a Mac AND a PC. That way, they've gotta be right. What if I'm shadowfax and I am receiving email over super-slow dial-up using a phone? :rolleyes:

>And KC, I don't care what you call me but I think I'm keeping this username.

That's fine. I'm just asking in case I slip up, which may happen eventually. :p

[Durandal7]

The subject on mine is "WinXP Patch" and is from "00o0x.@00o0x.com" and had a 150k attachment which I determined was a PC virus. The body contained only "Bruce/William" I have no idea what it meant but I got several more like that.

[Ifeelbloated]

Hey guys, this thread is very topical for me at the moment.
I've been getting some weird emails lately saying that something I sent wasn't sendable. When I know I didn't send any emails. I send very few emails and the ones I do are to close friends. One had a tag that sent me to a weird website called getlaid.net I was like what the *****??!! My suspicions tell me that someone hijacked my email address and is registering on websites as me. :mad:

[vniow]

The most dangerous thing that's happened to my e-mail was that it was apparently gone for about 15 minutes, then it came back. I changed it anywayz, I'm now at Yahoo! :)
I've gotton a few unknown .exe files but deleted them as soon as I saw them. Other than that, it's mostly bad porn :(

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by Ifeelbloated
Hey guys, this thread is very topical for me at the moment.
I've been getting some weird emails lately saying that something I sent wasn't sendable. When I know I didn't send any emails. I send very few emails and the ones I do are to close friends. One had a tag that sent me to a weird website called getlaid.net I was like what the *****??!! My suspicions tell me that someone hijacked my email address and is registering on websites as me. :mad:

That could just be a sleazy spammer trick.

[Taft]

This all reeks of a disgruntled PC user trying to attack the Mac community. Or maybe an ex-Mac user that had an exploding iMac??

All I know is I'm taking my e-mail address off of the forums.

Do you guys think MacRumors is getting too big for its own good?? I'm starting to worry. :( :(

Taft

[jelloshotsrule]

i took mine down too.

that said, i think that a lot of sites that are even bigger don't have this problem. so i don't think it's the size per se...

hmm... i don't know. people are freaks

[ShaolinMiddleFinger]

Mind my ignorance or stupidity but how do i change my name for Macrumors?

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by Taft

Do you guys think MacRumors is getting too big for its own good?? I'm starting to worry. :( :(

Taft

The site will definitly have to adapt as it becomes more popular. I'm used to the old days when there was only 3000 users and only 20 of them ever showed up. I think the site will be okay, we just have to be more cautious in the future.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by ShaolinMiddleFinger
Mind my ignorance or stupidity but how do i change my name for Macrumors?

you'd have to talk to arn...

[King Cobra]

I posted this elsewhere, but I think criminals these days are also becoming more aware of what is going on (9/11, possible attacks, what people think of this) and seem to want to get the most out of life while they can. I recommend everyone just keep a close eye on your belongings/computers/cars/etc. in case you have something like this happen to you. If you just like to go around and open attachments unknowingly, I STRONGLY recommend you pick up Norton or another powerful virus tool.

Unless it's from someone I know, then I'll go and look about a message. Recently, though, that hasn't happened.

[teabgs]

I took my email and homepage off my profile...

Also, Ive been concerned about MR's growing size/popularity for a little while....things change, so must we...everyone just has to be careful to not give out too much personal info...and as of now, theres nothing big going down...nobody ever said these events are all related...

[Durandal7]

None of these seem to be connected so it isn't some massive conspiracy. Just seems to be a bunch of ********** with amatuer hacking programs.

[ShaolinMiddleFinger]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule


you'd have to talk to arn...


Oh, ok. Thanks for the info. I thought I it was just a setting I couldn't find. Thanks again

[King Cobra]

Here is my biography:

Looking for personal info, frauders? Email me a virus, so I can defrag it with Norton Systemworks 2 and send you one back. Besides, it's disabled. I only trust the common posters reading this message.
:)

[Mr. Anderson]

I haven't noticed a thing - odd - why are you guys so special? What other sites are you registered at?

[Durandal7]

Well, I'm registered here and..... that's about it. Besides one of the e-mails specifically mentioned Macrumors (the TrOOls message)

[vniow]

Originally posted by teabgs
I took my email and homepage off my profile...




How'd you do that? I tried it and it says that I must complete the required fields.

[King Cobra]

Go to User CP/User Options and select YES with "Hide Email Address?"

[vniow]

Thanx. :)

[teabgs]

Originally posted by dukestreet
I haven't noticed a thing - odd - why are you guys so special? What other sites are you registered at?

well...noone said its because of MR so I wouldnt worry...

Im registered at that avrs??? forum...or soemthing...Dont really remember..theres always the paypal, ebay, etc kinda stuff...I dont post at any other webpages though...

[Durandal7]

Oh, I've posted at Bungie.org a couple of times to plug Marathon:Downfall but only about 10 people evn go to those boards anyomore.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by teabgs


well...noone said its because of MR so I wouldnt worry...

well it seemed to be implied. I'll just watch things carefully and see what happens. The new mail that came with Jaguar is pretty good at dectecting spam, I just need to teach it a few more and I can go to auto.

D

[vniow]

I'm here, the AVS Forum, MacNN, Apple Discussions, and a couple Yahoo groups, but that's it.

[Durandal7]

I got another mysterious e-mail. This one had an empty body and a 154k attachment that is "Audio/X-midi" format. The subject read only "Top.modified"

[vniow]

What provider do you use for e-mail Durandal7?

[jelloshotsrule]

i've been getting email with junk attachments for ages... is this new for you all?

i agree that the mentioning of macrumors and the specifics that i don't know are more than i've seen i'm guessing

but as for just emails with weird attachments... i just toss em. i did it before i was using the junk mail thing and now it's even easier... and bouncing em to sender is always a good option.

[eyelikeart]

I did manage to get an email regading my registration with www.chaosmint.com...which is arn's hub of websites...

apparently I should register my url with this company...I don't know why they think anything...I don't have any url information posted on any websites yet since my site is not yet built... :confused:

[Gus]

Since reading this thread, I have realized that I too have been receiving a lot of e-mails with strange attachments, or a subject line with no body of the message.

Even weirder is that I will ocassionally get e-mails that have my own handle as the sender. You know, as if I sent the e-mail to myself, except that I didn't. Hmmm....


Gus

[awrc]

While it's good to be vigilant, if you're receiving e-mail from apparent complete strangers with strange file names containing viruses, it doesn't necessarily mean there's anything sinister behind it.

Several of the recent crop of PC viruses will access the user's Outlook address book, pick two names at random, and send mail from one that appears to be from the other. So if you've ever exchanged mail with person A, and person B (who you've never heard of) has ever exchanged mail with person A, you might get mystery mail out of the blue from person B. It can be really frustrating because you're never entirely sure who it is who has the virus, person B denies ever sending it and thinks you're harassing them, and so on.

It gets even more fun if person B is actually a mutual acquaintance. I got a virus e-mail apparently from a friend of mine who moved to the UK a few years back. Thing is, it wasn't even from her current e-mail address, but one she'd used back when she lived in Milwaukee. Since I was a sysadmin at the ISP she used, I was able to verify that her account hadn't even *existed* for a couple of years at that point, but there I was receiving e-mail from her because this virus had picked up her address from somebody else's mailbox. We checked her computer, it was clean, all we were ever able to establish was that the infected individual that we both had been in touch with at some point was in Australia.

These things often come through purporting to be something like, as one person said, a Windows XP Patch or a Neat Flash Movie or, in the case of Klez.H, claiming to be a virus removal tool to protect the user against Klez.H.

As for receiving bounce messages regarding e-mail you've never sent - that happens to me fairly frequently, probably because I've made a point of never, ever spam-proofing my e-mail address on USENET. If your e-mail address has been harvested, from USENET or from a web site, there is at least one piece of spamware out there that takes e-mail addresses from the list of people it's spamming, and uses it as the From: line in the e-mail.

You can usually tell by looking at the bounce message where it really originated. Every time I've been hit it's been someone posting from a dialup in Troy, NY. Unfortunately for the spammer, I do (or did, anyway) this stuff for a living, so I was able to give his ISP the IP he was dialed in to and when he was dialed in - a decent ISP can track that stuff through RADIUS logs to a specific user.

Oh, and it doesn't matter if you only posted once, eight years ago. I've always used the same basic username ('awrc') for every account I've ever had - my current one at my own domain, my work account at the ISP, the account at previous job, and so forth all the way back to when I first got Internet access through university back in 1989.

Since a lot of spam software goes through lists in alphabetical order, I find it's not unusual to receive spam that's been cc'ed to a dozen or so people, most of which were me at some point and which in one case hasn't been used since 1994.

So, like I said, while it's wise to be careful and there are dangerous nutjobs out there (and I have received that sort too, unfortunately, including death threats) a lot of apparently sinister e-mail has a more mundane cause.

[Durandal7]

On an unrelated note, someone did me the "favor" of signing me up for a Spymac.com forums account a while back.

[eyelikeart]

I've been recently getting emails from my yahoo & bellsouth addresses...the bellsouth I use all the time...and it's quite disturbing...

I really do hope there is something done at some point regarding privacy on the internet when dealing with emails...

[job]

wow i leave the boards for the labor day weekend and find even more changes than when i missed alpha's departure.

insane....

ah well.

[Royal Pineapple]

I have NEVER, EVER receved a peice of spam at my @mac.com account and i use it for everything, never an unwanted email, never a "stalker" ;) and never a virus
this amungst other things is why i will be keeping my .mac account for a while to come

[job]

i've been absent from the forums for a while.

all i know is what has been posted here and that jef has decided to leave.

so do these people(s) really pose any significant problem to the users of the forums, other than to annoy the h*** out of us?

are these spam emails really originating from someone who uses these forums?

[teabgs]

I got a new one tonight...


alledgedly from myself...AGAIN! I was at a movie at the time the email was sent...


The subject of the email is "A SPECIAL FUNNY GAME" I havent opened it....and I did not send it to myself.

[job]

content?

any attachments?

i wonder how these people are sending the emails using our own addresses.

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by hitman

i wonder how these people are sending the emails using our own addresses.

There are assorted programs for the Mac and PC that manipulate the e-mail header and anonymously access a SMTP server that you are logged in under, of course ISPs hate this.

Not that I would know anything about that :p

[job]

Originally posted by Durandal7

Not that I would know anything about that :p

heh. ;)

however, how can we be sure that the emails are coming from a macrumors forum user?

[teabgs]

Originally posted by Durandal7


There are assorted programs for the Mac and PC that manipulate the e-mail header and anonymously access a SMTP server that you are logged in under, of course ISPs hate this.

Not that I would know anything about that :p

hehehehe.....can I stop this from happening? its been going on for like a week now....I'd like it to stop

[sparkleytone]

a maybe-related question...do you guys have the MR board email you when your threads are posted on?? i have always had that off and i have had no problems. of course coming from the pc world, i am also used to messages apparently sent to and from myself, and also messages claiming an email failed to send. these are just old spammer tricks and such, and basically mean that the SMTP server of the ISP you are on was h4x0rd.

use your .mac account. zero spam is worth $100 to alot of people.

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by teabgs


hehehehe.....can I stop this from happening? its been going on for like a week now....I'd like it to stop

Check your PM box, I'll see if I can help you stop it at the source.

[awrc]

Originally posted by Durandal7


There are assorted programs for the Mac and PC that manipulate the e-mail header and anonymously access a SMTP server that you are logged in under, of course ISPs hate this.


> telnet durandal7s.mail.server 25
HELO fake.system.name
RCPT TO: durandal7@wherever
MAIL FROM: durandal7@wherever
DATA
From: durandal7@wherever
Subject: I Am Your Evil Twin, Skippy

insert virus or message here
.
QUIT

The above simply illustrates (using fake addresses obviously) how easy it is for anyone with access to any sort of telnet to send forged e-mail without a client as long as they know a little SMTP. While it does have its uses in the "sending people e-mail purporting to be from Elvis Presley" department, It's also a quick and easy way (if you run your own mail server) to check whether youve got relaying blocked, and so forth. Also useful (in combination with speaking a little POP3) to let you send and read your mail without actually using a mail client of any kind.

While From lines are easily faked, IP addresses aren't - while the sender can obfuscate stuff, chances are that at least one of the Received: lines in the full headers will reveal the true IP the message was sent from. Sometimes the mail server is helpful enough to include the identity of the server in there too.

A good way of finding out the true source of spam is to sign up with a service like spamcop.net - they have free "reporting only accounts" that are, uh, free, as well as offering a paid spam filtering service (that works very well in my experience).

Typically the first thing I do each day is open a browser onto my Spamcop account then go through each piece of junk mail that I received in Mail.app, hitting Option-Command-U to get the raw source, Command-A to select it all, and the usual to copy it and paste it into the Spamcop reporting text box. This will then (eventually) analyze the spam you submitted. It's very good at determining where mail actually came from, and offers the option of sending the appropriate sysadmin(s) an e-mail report on the incident.

It's even easier for Mailsmith users - they just command-click on a piece of spam and the context menu includes a "Report to Spamcop" option right there.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by hitman
however, how can we be sure that the emails are coming from a macrumors forum user?

in durandal's case, i believe the sender mentioned macrumors... but that is different than the spam most people are mentioning

i get 5-10 spam messages every night and probably another 10 during the day... i delete them all and bounce them to sender, sometimes receiving an error because the return address was invalid.

it's annoying, but it has decreased since i've been bouncing to sender. and, i don't see any real threat.

i have gotten plenty of attachments "fun special game" and all that... almost always in broken english. i just toss em. why would i try to open something when i don't know who it's from? or when it's a .exe and i have a mac...?

just trash that shizzle or do what awrc said and get some spam protection...

however, like i said, durandal's case was more personal. i think the 2 things are unrelated though. (ie, his case and spam with weird attachments from one's own address and all that)