[Talk Host]

To all TOTV members

Talk of the Villages has one of the most sophisticated security systems available, however, we believe hackers have accessed our email data base and are broadcasting unauthorized emails to our entire membership. The hacker appears to be a forum similar in nature to TOTV but shares many other communties in addition to the Villages. It is against federal law to hack into a secured website such as TOTV. There are very, very stiff spam laws and penalties.

Please be assured that these emails you are receiving are not authorities or sponsored by TOTV. Thinking that the hacker is a legitimate forum, some of our members have posted their information here. We have removed those posts.

If you receive one of these unauthorized spam emails, do not respond to it. You will only be verifying that you have a "good" email address.

The only broadcast email you will receive from us is an occasional newsletter about Talk of The Villages.

Sincerely
Jan Kokochak, administrator
Talk of The Villages

[Barefoot]

Jan, I almost responded to this because it said to hit "Local" button at the top of the screen to access Village information once you accessed their web site. Because there was no such "local" button I was going to e-mail them. So, a thousand thank you's for this post.

[chelsea24]

Yes, thank you Jan. I did get a couple of emails. Now I know why. :bigthumbsup:

[Peazoup]

I too received this email and.........clicked on "local". It still looked legitimate. Well, I guess I'm going to get a barage of unwanted emails now. Boo

This group did a talk at the Villages Computer Club maybe about 8 months ago?? Looks like a competitor in certain respects to Talk of the Villages??

Their e-mail went into my spam bin right away and I had to locate it there. It looks like they just e-mailed TOTVers who have listed e-mails.

[graciegirl]

What is it? Is it a competititive forum that most of us have no interest in? (It is too broad for my interests and I am obsessed with life in TV and all of you.) Or is it a spam conduit, or both? Do they make money by selling our email address to people and those sending us spam? I am addressing this to all of you and hope to sort this out. In some ways I am computer savvy and in other ways I don't understand the connections in cyberspace.

I realized that TOTV has to be funded somehow, and this [site] looks so much more "commercial" at first glance.

Tal, you know about this kind of stuff. Muncle, you do too and Village Kahuna? And my ever reliable Village 07.

Now that I have responded to them to tell them to take me off the list, will some nasty deed be done to me and mine?

[KathieI]

Actually, I received 2 emails, one yesterday and one today. Thank goodness I've been too busy packing and had not checked my emails lately. Once I saw this thread, I checked and good 'ole hotmail has put them in spam. So I've just deleted them without opening them.

Thanks for the heads up!! I've decided that I'll keep my email on my profile because its a great way for my friends to contact me from TOTV other than pm's.

Since its been about 1 1/2 years since I registered for TOTV, I think the odds are good that it won't happen again for a long time.

Thanks Jan and the Admins. You've saved our butts again. Kath

Originally Posted by graciegirl

What is it? Is it a competititive forum that most of us have no interest in? (It is too broad for my interests and I am obsessed with life in TV and all of you.) Or is it a spam conduit, or both? Do they make money by selling our email address to people and those sending us spam? I am addressing this to all of you and hope to sort this out. In some ways I am computer savvy and in other ways I don't understand the connections in cyberspace.

I realized that TOTV has to be funded somehow, and this [site] looks so much more "commercial" at first glance.

Tal, you know about this kind of stuff. Muncle, you do too and Village Kahuna? And my ever reliable Village 07.

Now that I have responded to them to tell them to take me off the list, will some nasty deed be done to me and mine?

My guess is that they just trolled through the TOTV website looking for Members with visible emails to get them to look at their website. Which if you looked at it would get them more hits which in turn allows them to raise their advertising rates??

[jjdees]

Jan, you said it's against federal law, and Tal said the perpetrators spoke at a Computer Club meeting 8 months ago. I've got to believe the Computer Club knows who it's speakers are and could provide their identity. If Tal is correct and and it's obvious who committed the crime, are the Admins going to go after them?

Originally Posted by jjdees

Jan, you said it's against federal law, and Tal said the perpetrators spoke at a Computer Club meeting 8 months ago. I've got to believe the Computer Club knows who it's speakers are and could provide their identity. If Tal is correct and and it's obvious who committed the crime, are the Admins going to go after them?

I do not think they hacked into the TOTV website just fished through for e-mails which were visible to any TOTV user.

Think it was last Summer that one of the bigwigs from this group talked about his company at a Villages Computer Club meeting. I remember the castle like structure in Orlando which is this company's world headquarters. They do look like they are much more commercially-oriented than TOTV.

Their site has blogs, expert opinions, videos, etc. but covers a much wider range than the Villages.

[Puterguru]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac

My guess is that they just trolled through the TOTV website looking for Members with visible emails to get them to look at their website. Which if you looked at it would get them more hits which in turn allows them to raise their advertising rates??

Well is this just a "guess" or does the "advanced security system" you have provide some kind of logs as to what happened?

Originally Posted by Puterguru

Well is this just a "guess" or does the "advanced security system" you have provide some kind of logs as to what happened?

You will have to get the Administrators input on this. They probably were not sure what was happening until they got feedback from the people on TOTV who have e-mails visible. If they were "hacked" the spam would have gone to everyone who is a member of TOTV who has an e-mail listed somewhere with TOTV.