Watch your PM ........don't respond

[aussiemom]

Not sure if anyone else has received any of these, but I just received a private message through TOTV that said Urgent Reply. It is from a Jeanny Kalifa for an attorney in Liberia. Do not open on the link just in case. Bad enough we get these in regular emails but now they are going through TOTV to get to us all. :swear::mad:

[BarryRX]

Not sure if anyone else has received any of these, but I just received a private message through TOTV that said Urgent Reply. It is from a Jeanny Kalifa for an attorney in Liberia. Do not open on the link just in case. Bad enough we get these in regular emails but now they are going through TOTV to get to us all. :swear::mad:

I would inform the administrators by clicking that little triangle above your post

[eweissenbach]

Not sure if anyone else has received any of these, but I just received a private message through TOTV that said Urgent Reply. It is from a Jeanny Kalifa for an attorney in Liberia. Do not open on the link just in case. Bad enough we get these in regular emails but now they are going through TOTV to get to us all. :swear::mad:

I think you are the only one who got one, and I am pretty sure you recently lost a distant relative in Liberia. Condolences for your loss.

[TOTV Team]

Please send the user name to us so we can ban the account.

[784caroline]

I also got one ..sent the PM to the Moderator.

[Becky]

Sorry guys, I got it too and have already claimed the money. It seems I am the great-great grandmother of my son's neighbors brothers sister-in-law. As I now have 15,000,000.00 more $$$'s this month vs last month, drinks are on me at the sqare tonight! :a20:

[aussiemom]

Sorry guys, I got it too and have already claimed the money. It seems I am the great-great grandmother of my son's neighbors brothers sister-in-law. As I now have 15,000,000.00 more $$$'s this month vs last month, drinks are on me at the sqare tonight! :a20:

In addition to 15,000,000 more $$$s I bet you have just as many new people wanting to be your friend.....enjoy your $$$$ although offering free drinks tonight in TV will probably deplete all your money before the nights over. :wine::wine: :a20: :a20:

[bkcunningham1]

Not sure if anyone else has received any of these, but I just received a private message through TOTV that said Urgent Reply. It is from a Jeanny Kalifa for an attorney in Liberia. Do not open on the link just in case. Bad enough we get these in regular emails but now they are going through TOTV to get to us all. :swear::mad:

This morning a got an email in my Yahoo mail account from the same person. I didn't open the email. I came here to TOTV first to see the private message since it was marked "urgent" I wanted to make sure it was real. Whenever I get a PM on TOTV, I get an email in my private account notifying me of the TOTV message.

I didn't get a private message on TOTV, only the email in my private yahoo account. So it appears TOTV has been hacked. Beware of emails you open everyone.

[skyguy79]

Urgent Notice: If you receive one of those messages and at the end it says to send money, Make sure to send the money "In Cash" as soon as possible if it gives my mailing address as the send to address.

Hurry, don't let the offer expire! http://i314.photobucket.com/albums/ll412/Gwatha/bth_smiley_devil.gif

[njbchbum]

This morning a got an email in my Yahoo mail account from the same person. I didn't open the email. I came here to TOTV first to see the private message since it was marked "urgent" I wanted to make sure it was real. Whenever I get a PM on TOTV, I get an email in my private account notifying me of the TOTV message.

I didn't get a private message on TOTV, only the email in my private yahoo account. So it appears TOTV has been hacked. Beware of emails you open everyone.

if totv was hacked, am wondering if that means the hacker now has our email account info and can use it to spam others!

[bkcunningham1]

if totv was hacked, am wondering if that means the hacker now has our email account info and can use it to spam others!

I don't know. I received an email from the exact same person that the original poster mentioned. It said URGENT from Jeanne Kalifa @ Talk of the Villages.

I didn't open the email but came here to check the private message first because it seemed fishy. There wasn't a private message here for me so somehow the person behind the scam got my email from TOTV.

[graciegirl]

I don't know. I received an email from the exact same person that the original poster mentioned. It said URGENT from Jeanne Kalifa @ Talk of the Villages.

I didn't open the email but came here to check the private message first because it seemed fishy. There wasn't a private message here for me so somehow the person behind the scam got my email from TOTV.

That is a bit scary.

I am so careful about opening attachments and yesterday I sent a bunch of Christmas letters by attachment and wonder if our friends are equally as suspicious.

BUT...you have to be. You can't trust messages from people you don't know. Or even people you DO know who have been hacked and it appears that the message is coming from them and then it is something entirely different or contains a virus.

You wonder how it can be stopped. I err on the side of caution and often delete emails from someone I don't immediatly recognise.

[njbchbum]

I don't know. I received an email from the exact same person that the original poster mentioned. It said URGENT from Jeanne Kalifa @ Talk of the Villages.

I didn't open the email but came here to check the private message first because it seemed fishy. There wasn't a private message here for me so somehow the person behind the scam got my email from TOTV.

guess we'll just hafta wait and see if any folks on our email contacts list start getting spam from our email acct! smh

[skyguy79]

That is a bit scary.

I am so careful about opening attachments and yesterday I sent a bunch of Christmas letters by attachment and wonder if our friends are equally as suspicious.

BUT...you have to be. You can't trust messages from people you don't know. Or even people you DO know who have been hacked and it appears that the message is coming from them and then it is something entirely different or contains a virus.

You wonder how it can be stopped. I err on the side of caution and often delete emails from someone I don't immediatly recognise.Gracie, unfortunately you can't stop them. They're like cockroaches. The more you stamp them out, the more they appear. You just have to be careful about any suspicious looking emails. BTW, I doubt the spammer in this case has the email of those they've sent their spam to. There is a way of doing it without having access to the email database. I won't explain how just in case there is an unwelcome lurker that we don't want to give any bright ideas to! I'll send you a message using the method, but don't respond! If I'm a spammer, I will then get your email address! :wave:

[bonrich]

Unfortunately, the scammer scare has permeated email messaging, so to be on the safe side, we do not open any kind of greeting card sent as an attachment. We do have friends that use this method, but we err on the safe side and delete them, sadly to the dismay of the ones that use this now.
:confused::pray:

[graciegirl]

Unfortunately, the scammer scare has permeated email messaging, so to be on the safe side, we do not open any kind of greeting card sent as an attachment. We do have friends that use this method, but we err on the safe side and delete them, sadly to the dismay of the ones that use this now.
:confused::pray:
I thought so. I guess I had better send them again and this time copy and paste into the body of the email.

[skyguy79]

I thought so. I guess I had better send them again and this time copy and paste into the body of the email.That may not work. You're probably copying a temporary copy on your own hard drive, if that's so then it won't be available to your recipient. Want to test, just send me a copy first and I'll let you know if it works OK!

[Barefoot]

I didn't get a private message on TOTV, only the email in my private yahoo account. So it appears TOTV has been hacked. Beware of emails you open everyone.

I haven't received these nuisance messages. BK, I notice you include your e-mail address on your Profile. I don't include my e-mail address on my Profile. Perhaps this is only happening to those members who include an e-mail address on their Profile?

[Barefoot]

You just have to be careful about any suspicious looking emails.

I recently opened an attachment sent from a friend that I know well and trust. It contained a virus. He actually hadn't sent the e-mail to me, it was done via his account in the middle of the night. Now I just delete anything I'm not expecting.

[2BNTV]

I received an e-mail a while back that had no subject from a friend of mine. I inadvertly opened it. Fortunately, it was from a reputable business. How they hold of his name, I'm not sure of.

It is very important that you keep your computer up to date with virus protection and malwarebytes. I have been using free MS Essentials and Malwarebytes downloaded via Google for two years now and no problems..

[skyguy79]

I recently opened an attachment sent from a friend that I know well and trust. It contained a virus. He actually hadn't sent the e-mail to me, it was done via his account in the middle of the night. Now I just delete anything I'm not expecting.What you've described sounds to me like it's a process called spoofing! I've received a numerous amount of these especially while I was the website developer for a fairly large non-profit. They're usually just a method of getting your attention so they can get their message read. But they could also be something a bit more nefarious so you do need to be cautious. Personally I find the best way to identify possible spoofs in emails from friends is to read the topics, and if it makes no sense that the sender would be sending it, then it's probably a spoof! If you want to read more about spoofs, go to:

Email spoofing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing)

I also use a prescreening program for a number of years now to view a basic vesion of emails while they are still on the email server, before I download them to my regular email program. That way I can delete suspicious messages, obvious spam and even emails I would have later deleted anyway. This program is called MailwasherPro. You can learn more about it at this website:

Firetrust | Reliable anti spam blocker with MailWasher Pro, MailWasher Server and Benign (http://www.firetrust.com/)

[aussiemom]

I haven't received these nuisance messages. BK, I notice you include your e-mail address on your Profile. I don't include my e-mail address on my Profile. Perhaps this is only happening to those members who include an e-mail address on their Profile?

I don't have my email posted yet I got one of the messages too. They went through TOTV and I got the message from TOTV that I had a PM message in my box. It's not hard for those that know what they are doing to get such info. We just need to be aware of such things and not give them anymore info than they may already have.

[bkcunningham1]

I haven't received these nuisance messages. BK, I notice you include your e-mail address on your Profile. I don't include my e-mail address on my Profile. Perhaps this is only happening to those members who include an e-mail address on their Profile?

I hadn't thought of that and had forgotten my email was in my profile, Barefoot. That could be the reason I got the email.

[Virtual Geezer]

I didn't get a private message on TOTV, only the email in my private yahoo account. So it appears TOTV has been hacked. Beware of emails you open everyone.

It is more likely that your Yahoo account has been hacked and not TOTV. The hackers get more by going after Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail that they would ever get from TOTV.

Here is how it works. They hack in your account by either using brute force or maybe getting information that you have on a social media site like Facebook. Once they get into your e-mail account they can either run a bot (a robot program) to look at all the e-mail headers. The bot program cares less about the content of the e-mails and are more interested in collecting e-mail addresses. Once they get a few good hits they add then to their database and make a mass mailing to every address or header that they have. This database will continue to grow like a ponzi scheme.

Another thing the bot programs can do is search your e-mails for key words such as account, bank, transfer, money, and deposit. The bot will flag that e-mail for a closer look and that may be a doorway to your bank accounts.

Best thing to do is change the password on your e-mail account and make it a strong password. Use upper and lower case and mix in some numbers. also don't use things like your dog's name (that you may have pictures of on Facebook) and your house number as that is too easy to crack.

VG

[skyguy79]

It is more likely that your Yahoo account has been hacked and not TOTV. The hackers get more by going after Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail that they would ever get from TOTV.

Here is how it works. They hack in your account by either using brute force or maybe getting information that you have on a social media site like Facebook. Once they get into your e-mail account they can either run a bot (a robot program) to look at all the e-mail headers. The bot program cares less about the content of the e-mails and are more interested in collecting e-mail addresses. Once they get a few good hits they add then to their database and make a mass mailing to every address or header that they have. This database will continue to grow like a ponzi scheme.

Another thing the bot programs can do is search your e-mails for key words such as account, bank, transfer, money, and deposit. The bot will flag that e-mail for a closer look and that may be a doorway to your bank accounts.

Best thing to do is change the password on your e-mail account and make it a strong password. Use upper and lower case and mix in some numbers. also don't use things like your dog's name (that you may have pictures of on Facebook) and your house number as that is too easy to crack.

VGVK, I'd agree with you except for one thing. The OP indicated that the email was identified as coming from TOTV and probably had a message that looks something like this:

This is a message from (user) at Talk of The Villages"https://www.talkofthevillages.com /forums/"
Talk of The Villages - The Villages, Florida (https://www.talkofthevillages.com) /forums/
The Talk of The Villages owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email.

To email (user), you can use this online form:

http://www.talkofthevillages (http://www.talkofthevillages) .com/forums/sendmessage.php?do=mailmember........

OR, by email:

EMAIL=user@somewhere.net (EMAIL=user@somewhere.net)
What I think they're doing is using existing methods of members being able sending the messages via Email to each other and where they can't access the actual email address as the email address is called from the database by the html. The sender can't see this.

Why I think they do this is in hopes the receipient will respond so they can legally gain ownership to the address (to sell it only) so they can add it to lists of addresses they can sell to spammers and businesses. Until they take that ownership by receiving a message from the legit user, they can't legally sell the address in lists, but once they get your address this way they can do it legally.

This may seem complicated to the average email user, but the important thing to remember is... Do Not reply to these messages which will deny them your email address!

[TOTV Team]

The offending user has been banned and their IP address blocked.