Spam being sent to my Email, from MMO-Champ

[Deleted]

I tried to use the "Contact Us" to report something to the webmaster, but after a few days I have not had a response.

Gmail has a feature where you can do: yourname@gmail.com and add something like yourname+mmochamp@gmail.com and receive email to your main inbox.

I recently started receiving email regarding Legal action for my non-existent Runescape account to the email address that is only attached to my MMO-Champ account. It even has the same (deliberate) typo in it, so I know it wasn't guessed.

Either you have/had a breach or you have shared my email address with a phishing group.

I expect a response.

Jinna.

[Deleted]

Or you could have a tracking cookie on your side.

[Deleted]

I had investigated that route, but I have not identified anything on the PC as malicious. I also am very very careful about what websites I visit (I would have though that apparent by how I have unique logins to every site I register for). I am confident that there is nothing on my end.

[Boubouille]

No one is unhackable, if I followed your judgement it would basically imply that we're not very very careful.

We don't sell emails to people, spammers buy those by the million for $50, no company in their right mind would sell their userbase for money. The user database did get compromised a couple years ago, and emails were probably dumped but that's about it. It might be a very late effect from this.

We have pretty strict security measures in place, moderators do not have access to emails or IPs, we have extra layers of protection on top of what vbulletin offers, a lot of sketchy features are disabled (sql console in admincp, etc).

I always assume that no one is unhackable, big ass companies get compromised all the time, but as far as I know nothing happened on our side in quite some time.

[Theodon]

I thought MMO-champ was leaking my e-mail address out until Boubouille soundly told me what my e-mail was and how the info was retrieved (anyone could do it) There is often multiple ways for people to get your e-mail addresses.

I don't know if it's related but multiple website hosting accounts linked to the curse database were spewing out some phishing e-mails, so I think someone is targeting those accounts through those other means.

After working in a large College as an IT Services guy, I also now know how long the chain can be when it comes to how an e-mail address was acquired, even the infrequently used ones. I also instantly lost all animosity for anyone working in that role that I ever harboured in the past! Oh my god...

[jmmathe1988]

I get all sorts of weird emails, last week I got 1 with my best friends FULL name as the sender in my hotmail but it wasen't his email address, hes not on my contact list, in my address book, or sent me an email ever! We were both very stumped by it! Best thing to do is just delete and ignore them! We both took a screen shot of this particular email though cause we thought it was funny and strange to say the least!

[Deleted]

No one is unhackable, if I followed your judgement it would basically imply that we're not very very careful.

I do know that nobody is unhackable, and that despite every precaution I make my first reaction was to run scans and check my web history to see if there was anywhere in the last few months that I visited that was out of the ordinary. I always browse with noscript on, whitlisting the few sites that I really need it for and not allowing it for others, I also do regular scans etc.

So when I saw this, 2 possibilities entered my mind, either I was breached, or MMO-Champ was. I have looked at my end and cannot find anything (doesn't mean nothing's there) so the next step was to inform MMO-Champ. I do admit my wording may have been a bit confrontational, but you can imagine my state of mind if I believed a site that I visit many times a day seeming to have been breached, or worse.

I am trying to remember when I last changed my email address to MMO-Champ, I may have done it since the data compromise years back, but I'm not 100% certain when I changed it. I think it would have been something I'd do when that happened. Infact, I think that may be when I put in the typo, having before been using the correct spelling.

I still think it worth bringing to your attention, as I know that few people A) check their spam and B) have a system in place to identify culprits of spam. So it may simply be that nobody else is aware that spam coming to them could have, let's call it originated, from their MMO-Champ email address. The only emails I've gotten using the MMO-Champ email address are regarding the Runescape legal action (I've received 3 of them), and while I don't want to cause a scare (hence trying to contact the webmaster privately earlier in the week) it might be an idea for other users to see if they have received a similar email.

And thank you Bou for responding personally to this, I know you are a busy man and taking the time to respond yourself shows to me you take this seriously.

[Jacus]

Similar to these ones? I started getting them as well

[Deleted]

Yes, those are exactly the same emails.

[Telshin]

Would you PM the original from gmail? (Click the down arrow then select show original)