It isn't necessarily a hack. Almost everyone has this problem on myspace. We get 5-10 false messages a day. What happened what somebody in your band clicked on a bad link(which people are very clever at concealing) and that either stole you password and somebody later automatically set up a bot to spam other people or it used your existing log on to spam your friends list.

Myspace's population will crash by the end of the year if they can't fix their infrastructure. It is a very big and annoying problem.

Thanks for the info guys ... I've changed the password - hopefully thats the end of it. Sorry to anyone who got any spam claiming to be from us.

http://www.myspace.com/thepashuns

Youth and enthusiasm are no match for age and treachery.

I must advise against using the word hack. It is phishing, an online trap to get your personal information.

Hacking is on a different level of illegality/invasion.

The best thing you can do when someone gives you a link on myspace is hover your mouse over it and look where it is really going to take you (usually your browser will show this to you in the bottom left of the window). If it is to some weird site, it is likely a trap. Change your password immediately if you clicked on it. With myspace you should change your password weekly it's such a rough place.

Hacking used to be a good word, meant for skilled and clever programmers who make computers do things out of the ordinary. Unfortunately in popular usage it now means bad things. The fight over that word was lost long ago.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Brian
Hacking used to be a good word, meant for skilled and clever programmers who make computers do things out of the ordinary. Unfortunately in popular usage it now means bad things. The fight over that word was lost long ago.

Yep. Its almost impossible these days to convey what the word 'hacker' really means. The media has redefined it. What most nefarious activities relating to computers actually is: 'cracking' not 'hacking'.
Sorry to go off-topic, but this always bugs me as I consider myself a bit of a hacker (in the original sense of the word)

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

spskins
What are you guys talking about? I got some sweet ringtones, some killer fake bud to smoke, a Macy's card, AND I got to see who had a crush on me... us... me?

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Last edited: Jan 09, 2008 15:30:34

"LOLZ, did you see what she did!? Her parents are going to kill her!"

I got that one about fifty times a week for a while. I've always had the same question that Dice asked. What exactly do they get out of it? What exactly is gained from any kind of spamming? I can't imagine anyone buys anything or subscribes to any sites because of it. It annoys the crap out of everyone and no one, not even the dimmest idiot, isn't wise to it after being on the internet and having an email account for about five minutes. They should all be castrated.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

What do they get out of it? Well, $$$ of course, otherwise there would be no point. It costs virtually nothing to do what they do, the penalties and chances of getting caught are low, and the payback is much larger. By stealing accounts they can plant links to their clients websites that sell questionable goods and services. The more links they can get to these sites, the higher their page ranking will be in search engines. And that's what they are getting paid for.

I've had about 100 hack attempts this month on this site. It has really gone up lately.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

The Nigeria thing is a scam, obviously. That part is certainly illegal, as are pyramid schemes. Sending millions (billions?) of emails promoting such a scam using computers you don't own or pay for is also illegal.

Phishing is setting up phony login or "click me" forms which steal cookies and other info unwittingly entered by hapless, confused users.

Once a successful phishing attack occurs, in many cases they have the info they need to take over your computer, and then they can use it to do what they want, which may include sending spam emails or hosting more phishing/cracking attacks. This is more of a problem for web server computers than regular Joe PC's. Servers can be coralled into massive "bot-nets" that can be controlled remotely by bad guys to automate massive hack attacks, denial of service attacks, or just pump spam.

It's all bad AND illegal Jake.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Brian
What do they get out of it? Well, $$$ of course, otherwise there would be no point. It costs virtually nothing to do what they do, the penalties and chances of getting caught are low, and the payback is much larger. By stealing accounts they can plant links to their clients websites that sell questionable goods and services. The more links they can get to these sites, the higher their page ranking will be in search engines. And that's what they are getting paid for.

I've had about 100 hack attempts this month on this site. It has really gone up lately.

So what they're actually making the money on is generating the hits and giving the exposure to the sites...I still have trouble imagining it being worth their while. I'm not refuting it, just saying I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it. I guess I never knew how easy and hands-off the whole thing really was to the people perpetrating it. To think, no honor...not even among internet pornographers. What's the world coming to?

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31