Blackmail Email from Scammer

[lozcb]

Well I guess you didn't like my post then as it was deleted by you.
I think I said that there were several car sites where I had used password and did not know which one could have been the one. I did not accuse SM but questioned whether there had been any breaches. With 7.9 billion records breached in 2019 alone it is not wrong for members here or any other site to ask questions. I am sure you are uber vigilant in keeping security of site in good order but mistakes can happen anywhere. The fact that you have never received a spam email to one email address you put up is hardly a robust test of site security is it?
Always remember "supression leads to suspicion".
Just my 2 cents and I accuse SM of nothing in this post.

Phil ,you need to chill , play some Vera Lynn today to cheer yourself up

 

[CatmanV2]

I think Matt's response is not un-reasonable. The consequences of a breach would be serious both to his business and to him (I assume he's the designated information controller) and dealing with the ICO can be a royal PITA.

And actually it's a pretty good test. Not getting an email, but checking on pwned or similar on a regular basis is pretty telling.

C

 

[conaero]

Well I guess you didn't like my post then as it was deleted by you.
I think I said that there were several car sites where I had used password and did not know which one could have been the one. I did not accuse SM but questioned whether there had been any breaches. With 7.9 billion records breached in 2019 alone it is not wrong for members here or any other site to ask questions. I am sure you are uber vigilant in keeping security of site in good order but mistakes can happen anywhere. The fact that you have never received a spam email to one email address you put up is hardly a robust test of site security is it?
Always remember "supression leads to suspicion".
Just my 2 cents and I accuse SM of nothing in this post.

I am super vigilant yes and so is Krishna who runs our servers. My point is you listing these links get indexed in Google and thus we get flagged. You have suggested and listed this site without proof, so I feel well within my rights to remove them.

 

[Phil the Brit]

Matt,
I actually don't recall listing any links, you sure it was me?
Also I am sure you are super vigilant but so were Google, Apple, Bank of America, AOL, British Airways, Reddit to name but a very few.
It was not unreasonable for me to ask the question as to whether this site had had a problem.
Stay safe.

 

[rockits]

As Catman mentions this issue is rife a commonplace in our world now. This is unlikely to change much as the world and system become ever more diverse and complex.

There is no silver bullet to protection unless you go off grid completely and live in a bunker Inthe Canadian mountains! Even then.....

The best we can do is limit our exposure so any hack or capture of data is minimised. I use Lastpass and it is good enough to help thin out the risk. Use a different random password on each site. Never use the same password again or on any two sites. Every time you do this you are increasing the risk.

It is madness to use the same password on many or all sites. If you haven't had a problem yet....you will. It is just a matter of time. Imagine if you could get into all these sites to glean all the personal information that is on them all. Write it all down on a bit of paper then think about it.

I use lots of old addresses for sites that I had to input and address or use random stuff if it doesn't matter. It is all about limiting risk.

I guess we could easily delete old redundant accounts and delete data as often live sites seem to get hacked. Not would be hard to obtain older data from backups and how useful is old non current data.

Just do the basics and stop doing crazy thing and in the main you will be fine.

Change password every year. Never use the same one or a simple one. There are a few basics steps that all help lessen risk.

 

[conaero]

Matt,
I actually don't recall listing any links, you sure it was me?
Also I am sure you are super vigilant but so were Google, Apple, Bank of America, AOL, British Airways, Reddit to name but a very few.
It was not unreasonable for me to ask the question as to whether this site had had a problem.
Stay safe.

You listed Ferrari chat, Sm and another site as possible culprits which I deleted.

 

[Phil the Brit]

You listed Ferrari chat, Sm and another site as possible culprits which I deleted.

Ah yes, I remember now, I named the four websites that I had used that had the compromised password in them. You said................. My point is you listing these links.
I did not post any links though.

 

[Phil the Brit]

As Catman mentions this issue is rife a commonplace in our world now. This is unlikely to change much as the world and system become ever more diverse and complex.

There is no silver bullet to protection unless you go off grid completely and live in a bunker Inthe Canadian mountains! Even then.....

The best we can do is limit our exposure so any hack or capture of data is minimised. I use Lastpass and it is good enough to help thin out the risk. Use a different random password on each site. Never use the same password again or on any two sites. Every time you do this you are increasing the risk.

It is madness to use the same password on many or all sites. If you haven't had a problem yet....you will. It is just a matter of time. Imagine if you could get into all these sites to glean all the personal information that is on them all. Write it all down on a bit of paper then think about it.

I use lots of old addresses for sites that I had to input and address or use random stuff if it doesn't matter. It is all about limiting risk.

I guess we could easily delete old redundant accounts and delete data as often live sites seem to get hacked. Not would be hard to obtain older data from backups and how useful is old non current data.

Just do the basics and stop doing crazy thing and in the main you will be fine.

Change password every year. Never use the same one or a simple one. There are a few basics steps that all help lessen risk.

Good advice, I think we are progressivly being forced to be more vigilant nowadays by responsible companies by them making us have longer passwords, upper and lower case, use letters and numbers, even charachters on some. Also the best companies are requiring secondary testing with call backs and texts etc.
The better companies are MAKING us do better!

 

[Felonious Crud]

As before, the suggested passwords from Chrome work well for me and sync between devices, which is really easy to use. I use LastPass for work.

Phil, the email address of the sender of ‘your’ spam email is also a link.

 

[Phil the Brit]

As before, the suggested passwords from Chrome work well for me and sync between devices, which is really easy to use. I use LastPass for work.

Phil, the email address of the sender of ‘your’ spam email is also a link.

Ok, I get that. I see the mods took that bit out from my original post just this morning having left it up since 16th April.
For clarification then is this website not going to allow ANY links on this site now? Any link from any source could be infected couldn't it.
Would appreciate an answer from mods.

 

[Felonious Crud]

I'm sure that links to kosher stuff will be fine - YouTube vids, car ads, relevant car-related news articles and so on. All of that is good as it will help drive traffic to SM. Dodgy stuff such as fake / temporary email addresses used by spammers (and spammers) is not good as it will drive the wrong kind of traffic to this site.

A more informed brain (Matt's!) will be able to clarify.

 

[Zep]

The mods and in particular Matt spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that the content here is not policed in a draconian way, but that risks are reduced and scammers are weeded out, much of which you don’t see. What FC says is correct.

We are sorry if you are unhappy with the free service provided

 

[Felonious Crud]

The mods and in particular Matt spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that the content here is not policed in a draconian way, but that risks are reduced and scammers are weeded out, much of which you don’t see. What FC says is correct.

We are sorry if you are unhappy with the free service provided

Give it 5 minutes and I bet some so-called 'mod', aka agent of Putin, deletes this post. I've already seen a few shady types in bear-skin hats lurking around the garden. And when I renewed my phone contract I was told it came with 5G, aka a death sentence.

 

[Phil the Brit]

The mods and in particular Matt spend a lot of time and effort to make sure that the content here is not policed in a draconian way, but that risks are reduced and scammers are weeded out, much of which you don’t see. What FC says is correct.

We are sorry if you are unhappy with the free service provided

Where did I say I was unhappy? I am just seeking clarification.
When I posted the original post it was partly to give others people a heads up and also to give people a laugh and have a joke at my own expense. Some certainly did We all need some laughs right now.
Felonious Crud has put me right about posting up in the original post the scammers email address which I have taken on board.
Matt, thanks for a great source of info.

 

[Sam McGoo]

FYI - about the OP's (and many others) scam email

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/n...ictims-their-own-passwords-in-sextortion-scam

Also, an email address to report these things to. (you just forward them on to it)
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing