I've e-mailed a couple of you in the last day...do NOT open anything from my emails :"deeshultz50 or Ontheroadagain"....Something has compromised my computer and it won't let me into my own e-mails....I'm sorry if this causes problems for any of you. And if I ever find the guys that do this............ :hunf:

I hope you don't mind, I've made your title a little bit more relevant to make sure the people who need to know see it.

Good luck with getting it sorted.

How in the world did you do that?????

She's a mod.

I am so sorry to hear that. Ppl who do things like this should be ashamed of themselves.

You bet it does. It makes me come here for hours everyday. It's not my fault. It's the virus. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have been on here for a year and a half and I have never had a problem from here.

LOL At first I thought you were responding the to the She's a mod! comment with your first line of I am so sorry! LOL

We had one of our 3 computers get a virus and it is costing us lots to get it fixed. Of course they also told us that it needs a new hard drive!!! I use his computer a lot as it is down stairs near the kitchen, but I assured him it was not the quilt board that caused the virus. Who knows????

The board is safe, but you can't be sure about any of the links that people post. Nature of the beast (Internet).

You can protect yourself against virus, antagonists are another story.

I caught a virus from this board it is called Quilting Pox. I have discovered that there is no cure.

Gramma Nan, me too. Also the Vintage sewing machine pox, has me itching all day til I check craigslist, and here a billion times!

And Ebay...

It's an unfortunate part of being online, viruses.

This is probably a good chance for everyone to have a wee check of their computer security.

Make sure your virus software is a good one, and up to date. Make sure that you regularly update your browser (internet explorer, chrome, firefox, whatever it is you use). They often send out security patches but you must do the updates to get them. If you recieve an email with an attachment, even if it promises to be the funniest email you've ever seen, don't open it until you've checked where it came from. Remember if your friend gets a virus, it will take control of her computer and send itself out to everyone in her address book. Which means you won't get a virus from looking at dodgy sites or ordering "pleasure enhancers" from Thailand, you will get it from a friend. :-)
Don't be afraid to delete emails before opening them if you're at all suspicious. The world won't end, your friend won't stop talking to you, and it's highly unlikely the secrets to world peace or the cure for cancer will be contained therein. ;)

Last week someone hacked into my sons Facebook and email and changed his passwords and who knows what else since he couldn't get into see :shock:

Facebook has been having lots of issues, and of course links are and attachments are always risky :roll:

A while back 'someone' said to put a bogus email address in your address book that you know won't go through. Make it be the first one.

Like [email protected]

IF someone gets your email address book and uses it, you should get a notification that the email sent to [email protected] didn't go through. You'll know right then that someone got your book and did something wrong.

Anyone ever heard of this? Heard of it working?

I didn't get any notification. Yes, someone hijacked my e-mails.....NO, I do not believe it came from this forum!!!! My SiL used my computer last month....SHE had it in her e-mail address. All of a sudden everyone in her address list started getting e-mails that are bogus (this one says I'm in England or somewhere and I have my passport, but I'm out of money, please send money). VERY frustrating!!! Sad part, I didn't have my e-mail contacts written down anywhere....and I may have lost contact with friends now!!!!!

SO -- BIG hints:

1) make sure your virus protection is on (however, virus protection wouldn't have helped this one.

2) write down all your e-mail contacts e-mail addresses

3) Let all your friends know to NEVER respond to an e-mail that says what that scammer said in this letter.

I had this happen to me twice. I read somewhere that the person affected chose to wipe her contact list and not keep them in there. I add some when I want to reply but I go back and delete them from my list from time to time. I had scads of addresses in my contact list from people asking for templates. So I felt really really bad when this happened. Now I manage my list and keep it small or empty just so this can't happen again.

Hi Dee, another board user had this exact same thing a while back - I was in her email address book and got the email saying she was in London and to send money - I know her well enough to know that it was not true so didn't click on anything and have had no trouble but I know that she had a lot of trouble afterwards sorting out her email account. I'll go and PM her and ask her to read this thread. Maybe she can help with the benefit of her experience. :-D

This is an option you might consider before opening any email you didn't expect to receive. I also like the idea of an empty address book and the incorrect email address that Quiltinghere mentioned.
I received a scam email. My browser sorted it into my spam box. I didn't open it. I went to the search field (not url line, the browser search field) and typed in the title on the email. I got lots of hits on the search response page. It is a known scam email. I deleted it without opening it.
Sorry for anyone who gets hit by the bad guys.

hi dee,

i'm the person k3n spoke about. the email that people got from "me" said that i was in london, needed money desperately and asked for a specific amount, some stupid amount like $574.47, and never said where to send it. the email went out to everyone in my address book. they had even gotten into my profile and changed my password and user name, so i couldn't make any changes to keep them out. they changed my age and all other info. it was a mess. when i FINALLY contact hotmail. who doesn't seem to have a phone #, (i hope that's not who you have) at first they didn't want to help me, because hotmail is free and doesn't come with tech support. only their paid service, msn, does. after a lot of back and forth, they tried to help, but couldn't get in, they said, because it was already a mess. by that time, i had opened a new account elsewhere and had moved my entire address book over. i told hotmail to close the old one, but they never did. i know it's still open after at least 6 months. i have learned that they stay open forever. who knows what info is in there? i'll never use it or look in there again.

i know it's a real bother, but i suggest that you leave that mail box alone and don't use it anymore. open a new one, especially if the old one was free. i have a paid address with my server and never had a problem with them. they give tech support because it's paid for. the new (my hobby one) i just opened is also free, and i know i'm taking a chance, but it's gmail, and i've been told by people who know, that google is the most difficult to hack.

btw, after i FINALLY got the whole thing taken care of, there was an article in the new york times about this very same scam, england and everything, right down to the exact message. apparently it was all over the country and was being searched out. i guess the starting location was never found.

EDIT: when i moved over the address book, i cancelled out the one in hotmail.
do not sign out of the one giving you trouble. if you don't have the password, you won't be able to get back in.

I have done that with phone numbers but never thought about doing it with suspicious email. Good idea!

Thanks everyone. I have created a new Gmail account...will put in the bogus e-mail contact as suggested. I'm in the process of changing over the important stuff - like Qwest has my e-mail address, need to change it.

That's a good idea about doing a google search for the subject line when questioning an e-mail!! Hadn't thought of it.

It's frustrating -- and yes, it was HOTMAIL. BUT, I've discovered I LOVE Gmail!!! So Hotmail/MSN has lost a customer.